It's Just Highschool or is it?
by Everlite
Summary: Four girls arrive at a new highschool, with a dangerous and morose past at their heels...literally. When they come to meet a certain group of boys, will their past catch up to them?
1. Wake Up Call! Morning preparations

**AN: Ok, I know there are so many Konoha High stories out there already, but I love them so much I decided to make one of my own at long last. Not to worry, it won't be the average, new-girls-come-to-the-school-and-make-a-love/hate-chemistry-with-the-guys-and-they-end-up-playing-truth-or-dare-and-discover-their-undying-love-and-passion-for-the-other-and-live-happily-ever-after-in-never-never-land Konoha High stories. No offense to those who write those kinds of Konoha High stories, because I enjoy them, but I wanted to create something a tad different. You will find out in later chapters, if I get enough reviews for the first one to progress further. I'd also like to apologize in advance for any of you die hard sasuxsaku fans. This pair may be on the down low as opposed to the others. I figured there have been so many fics already about that pair, I should just shake things up a bit. It's not my favorite pairing, but I don't have anything against it. So I hope you enjoy! (Note: This is my first fanfic, forgive me if it doesn't exactly "shine")**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters…but only because Kishimoto caught me before I could successfully make away with his ideas.**

**Pairs: NejixTen, ShikaxIno, NaruxHina, SasuxSaku**

_Character thoughts_

Chapter one: Wake up call! Morning preparations

"Someone wake her up!" rang the voice of a blond, sixteen-year-old kunoichi.

"Are you sure we should right now? It's an hour and a half until school starts," reminded a small, navy blue/purple haired girl with white eyes beside her.

"Yeah, but we need to get an early start so we can all freshen up together!" added a pink haired kunoichi.

"Exactly!"

"I don't think Tenten really cares about 'freshening up' as much as you two do."

"She'll thank us in the long run,." said the blond, as the pink-haired girl nodded in agreement. Seeing as it was useless fighting with these two, the shy girl had no choice but to give in.

"Ok, fine, but gently ok?" she said reluctantly. The two other girls smirked at each other, and each bent down to the sleeping girl's ear.

"TENTEN!" they both chorused into her ear.

"So much for gently," sighed the white-eyed one. The girl named Tenten shot her eyes open and quickly yanked herself up, covering her ear.

"God guys!" she said, looking up to see her three companions standing by her bedside with backpacks as well as makeup bags and gym bags. "I wouldn't be surprised if half the fire country heard that!" The blond rolled her eyes.

"In case you forgot Tenten, it's the first day of school." Tenten looked at her impassively.

"Yes I know Ino, but that still doesn't explain why you woke me up at-" she checked her alarm clock. "5:30 AM! What is wrong with you guys?"

"We need to get ready! It's a new school after all, we need to make an impression!" said the pink haired kunoichi tugging on Tenten's limp hand.

"Yes, we will indeed make an impression when we show up with raccoon eyes and dark circles, Sakura," said Tenten squinting her eyes as the dark haired girl turned on some more lights in the room, for the sun had not quite arisen yet. "Agh, Hinata, do we need so many lights? I can see well enough."

"I'm sorry Tenten. But you're already awake…sort of…and we might as well get an early start," said Hinata, hoping to soothe Tenten's morning-irritation mood. Tenten simply gave a grunt in response and rolled back over and planted her face into her pillow.

Ino began to twirl a lock of her hair impatiently.

"Come on, Tenten, we're all waiting," she groaned. No response in any action or statement from Tenten. "That's it. I was hoping we wouldn't have to resort to this but…Sakura? You may do the honors." Ino gave Sakura a knowing look. Sakura returned it with a mischievous smirk and an evil glint in her eye. Having been trained well in areas involving strength, Sakura easily lifted the side of the bed, roughly rolling Tenten out onto some covers that had fallen on the floor. Hinata winced, but the other two girls looked pleased. Tenten staggered to her feet.

"Ugh, fine I'm up. Let's get ready I guess," she said under her breath, but loud enough for her friends to hear. They smiled and squealed as they gathered up all their bags and left Tenten's bedroom.

As they entered the kitchen, all four girls took a seat at the island table. Regardless of past conflicts over such things as boys, exams and so on, the four girls had grown to be best friends and became inseparable. Even when starting a new school. Tenten started in on her breakfast. The rest of the girls had already eaten. They began to ponder their many questions about Konoha Village High.

"So, you think there will be any hott guys?" asked Ino, with a wiggle of her eyebrows. This had surprisingly not crossed the other girl's minds.

"I sure hope so," said Sakura, supporting her chin on her hand. "There was absolutely no chance of finding a decent boyfriend at our old school."

"Maybe that's because we went to an all girls school, forehead girl?" teased Ino, giving Sakura a playful nudge in the side. The rest of the girls giggled, and Sakura blushed in embarrassment.

"My bad Ino-pig…I guess I'm still a bit tired," she said with a yawn. The giggling slowly ceased, and everyone fell silent at the mention of their old school and the deep story within itself…Tenten brought her head up from her cereal bowl and broke the silence.

"Ah, see? We're too tired to even think straight. Now if there was such a big reason as to waking me up at 5:30, I'd appreciate it if we would tend to it now so my lack of rest is not in vain," said Tenten. The other girls noticed she was growing a bit testy, and a simple look they all exchanged said that they were ready to get down to business.

"Come on, Tenten" said Hinata as she stood up with Sakura and Ino.

"Pull me up," Tenten whined, offering her hands to her friends.

"What are we, four years old?" sighed Ino, as she and Sakura took each of Tenten's hands and pulled her to her feet with little effort. After they were sure Tenten was fully awake, they went into the guest room to get ready.

"Uh, guys, why are we getting ready in the guest room? What's wrong with my room?" Tenten asked with a bewildered expression.

"Are you kidding?" laughed Sakura, as she brushed her hair out in front of a mirror. "One could barely walk in that chasm!" Ino chuckled and Hinata gave a slight smile, but Tenten was confused.

"What? A chasm? My room's not _that_ bad!" She turned to Hinata, whom she was hoping would cut her some slack. "Is it?" she asked her. Hinata turned a bit red.

"Well…um…your room _is_ a bit untidy, Tenten." Tenten raised an eyebrow. "Please don't be offended!" Hinata assured her. "It's just that this is the only room in the house that has clear enough space for the stuff we brought." Instead of this clearing things up for Tenten, it confused her further.

"Huh? What stuff?" before she knew it, Sakura and Ino had unzipped their gym and makeup bags, and things like tank tops, mini skirts, jackets, pants, and assorted cosmetics were soon strewn across the bed and some of the floor. Tenten blinked. _Well then…_

"Now that we have our choices laid out, we can get started!" said Ino putting her hands on her hips as she blew a wayward strand of hair out of her eyes. Sakura clapped giddily, and then tugged Tenten over to the display of clothes on the bed.

"Wha? Sakura…what the…huh?" Sakura was holding a lime green tank top up to Tenten's upper body, unsure of whether it would work or not. Ino was still unpacking some accessories.

"Ino? What do you think?" Sakura asked Ino. Ino looked up from her bag and cringed in disgust.

"Absolutely not!" she said taking the tank and throwing it back onto the bed. She began to dig through more piles of shirts. "I think something more like…" she pulled her arm out of the pile to reveal a red tube top that faded light to dark from top to bottom. "This." Tenten's eyes widened at the article. Never in her life had she worn something so revealing and dare she say…girly. But when it came to her friends, she had to reason.

"Um…don't you guys think it's a bit...erm…too much?" Ino shook her head, refusing to take no for an answer.

"Too much? The boys will be all over you, Tenten!" said Sakura, with a playful wink.

Hinata, who had been trying on multiple shoes in hopes to maybe help her little height issue, decided to take part in the dilemma.

"I have an idea," she said quietly as she walked over to where they were. They all looked up at her, eagerly awaiting her solution. "Since I doubt tube tops alone are permitted at the high school anyway, why doesn't Tenten where something like a cute jacket or sweater over the top? That way, she will feel less exposed and there won't be any risk of violating the dress code." She said. The others blinked in surprise. This was the last thing they thought they would hear from Hinata. Normally, she never obsesses about clothes or how to add to them like Ino and Sakura do. But nonetheless, they were very happy with her idea.

"That's a great idea Hinata!" said Tenten, thankful to Hinata for saving her. Hinata looked at Sakura and Ino. Sakura shrugged, and turned back to the bed and soon dug out a white denim cropped jacket. The girls looked at the combination and approved. Tenten tried it on.

"So…what do you think?" she asked with a half smile on her face. Everyone's mouths hung open.

"I think…the guys will still be all over you," said Sakura.

"You look really pretty," said Hinata giving one of her signature sweet smiles. Ino also smiled sincerely and nodded in agreement. After they were done fawning over Tenten's ensemble, they picked out a red pleated skirt for her and some flip-flops. Once Tenten's clothing issues were dealt with, the rest of the girls tended to what they were going to wear. Tenten watched as she chuckled to herself about how it's like she can't even pick out her own clothes without their help. What would she do without them? After only about ten minutes, all the girls were dressed.

Sakura was wearing a pale pink spaghetti strap top along with slim hot pink cargo capris. She wore a hot pink ribbon around her hair for a hair band. On her feet she wore some platform pink scandals. She had on pink dangly earrings as well as a bracelet.

Ino wore a small black off-the-shoulder tee with purple hemming, and a purple pleated mini skirt. For once, she let her hair, which had grown long again, down and it flowed gracefully at her mid-back. Like Sakura, she wore platform scandals only black, and had on semi-large silver hoop earrings.

Hinata had on a small, light blue tee with a wide collar, and form fitting blue jeans. She put her hair back in clips to keep it out of her face, and had small diamond studs in her ears. Since all of the girls platform shoes were too big for Hinata, she settled with a white pair of flip-flops like Tenten's.

All the girls gasped when they saw how the others looked and they all began to spill out compliments to each other. However, there was one thing that was still not completely right…

"Tenten!" gasped Sakura. Tenten turned to look at Sakura.

"What?" she asked.

"Your hair!" she said, gesturing towards Tenten's trademark double buns.

"What about it?" shrugged Tenten. In the blink of an eye the other girls pounced and began to pull the hair ties out of her buns. "Ow! Guys, what are you doing- ouch!" Once the girls had accomplished their job, they stepped back to take a look at Tenten. They all immediately squealed and jumped, including Hinata.

"You're hair is so beautiful Tenten!" said Hinata admiring the shine, her face falling a bit when she discovered it was even healthier then her own hair.

"I don't understand why you always wear it in those buns," said Ino, shaking her head, as Sakura reached to grab one of the chestnut strands. Tenten slapped Sakura's hand away.

"Guys, you know I don't like wearing it down," Tenten growled as she attempted to snatch her hair things back from Ino. Ino pulled them out of her reach.

"Nuh-uh!" she said. "You are going to school with your hair down, and that's final," ordered Ino, showing her bossy but still maternal personality.

"But-"

"No!" said Sakura. "After we pack this stuff up…which may take a little while…we will leave. Just let me get a brush for you Tenten…" she ran into the bathroom and came back with her small pink hair brush. Without permission, Sakura began to brush out Tenten's tangles, and when she finished, she smiled in satisfaction. "There." She said. "Now, lets get this stuff together and head to school." The other girls nodded, and so their Konoha Village High experience began.

The girls took delight in the fact that this could possibly be their chance to escape a terrible past. A past that they hoped no one at Konoha Village High would ever have the displeasure of knowing.

**There…that's the first chappie. I know it's pretty uneventful at the moment, but my goal for this first chapter was really just to get everyone acquainted with the characters (I'm going to try to keep them in character). Don't worry, things are going to pick up! Anyway, R and R please! Compliments are greatly appreciated, but constructive criticism is welcomed too. I have more chapters written, and if you guys like this one enough I'll put them up. Tell me what you think. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Day One: New Friends, New Enemies

**Hey guys! I had to add some finishing embellishments on some chapters, so sorry if it took a little while to update. Many thanks to RocklLeeLover, scharlo, dreameyes, xMidorixTenshi and .Rainmoon. for reviewing the first one. (Sorry, Tsunade is a tad bit OOC in this chapter, and like everything else, you will find out why later.)**

**New reminder-**

_Thoughts_

"_memories"_

Chapter 2: Day one: New friends, new enemies

The four friends walked along the Konoha sidewalks in the direction of their new school. Their house (AN: they share a home) was within walking distance, so getting there wasn't an issue. Surprisingly enough, the girls stayed silent the whole walk. As chatty as they were that morning, their first day jitters seemed to kick in right then.

Hinata began to shuffle her feet and look at the ground. Sakura began to knock one of her dangly earrings back and forth in a pendulum manner. Ino was twiddling her thin thumbs. Tenten began to curl a lock of her hair around her index finger. These were all sure signs that the girls were nervous.

They remained in silence until suddenly, a loud bark rang out. All the girls yanked their heads up and looked around for the source of the piercing noise. They heard another, and noticed it was coming from around their feet. They looked down to see a small white dog sitting in front of them with its tail wagging violently. All the girls bent down to say hello to it.

"Aw, hello there little guy," said Ino with a warm smile, even though she was slightly allergic. All the girls began to pet the small dog as it closed its eyes and whimpered happily. About thirty seconds later, a boy their age, wearing a large coat with the hood up and red markings on his face, came running up the sidewalk in their direction.

"Akamaru!" he called, walking around the girls to pick up what was apparently his dog. "Geez, don't scare me like that buddy!" he said, rubbing Akamaru behind the dog's ears. It was then that he decided to look up at the girls. "Oh hey, sorry. Did he cause you guys any trouble?" he asked them, giving Akamaru a stern look. "I'm Kiba Inuzuka by the way," he added, remembering his manners.

"Oh no," began Hinata. "He was actually very sweet," she said with a smile. "I'm Hinata Hyuuga."

"I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"Sakura Haruno."

"Tenten."

After all the girls introduced themselves, Kiba took a good look at this group of girls as a whole. _Well look at this…they're kind of cute. I wonder where they are headed._ He thought to himself. "So, where are you guys going?" he asked, as they all began to walk again.

"Probably the same place as you," said Ino.

"Konoha Village High," finished Sakura.

"Yeah, that would be where I'm going too," Kiba said. "What year are you guys?"

"Sophomore," answered Tenten, who had released her hair from her finger.

"Well, looks like we're off to a good start because I am too. If you guys need anyone to show you around, I'm here for ya," he said as he gave a trusting smile with Akamaru. Yes, with Akamaru.

"Thank God," said Tenten in relieved tone. "I was worried we'd have trouble befriending people." Kiba gave a slight smile to himself and shook his head. With the way they look, that was not going to be a problem for them. Of course, Kiba didn't mention that.

"Oh cool, did you all get those tattoos together?" Kiba asked, noticing odd symbols on the girl's ankles. The girls all shared a look of confusion then looked down at their left ankles. Their confusion turned to alarm. The same memory echoed in each of their heads.

"_These marks will ensure your fates…and loyalty."_

"_OW! Loyalty…to what?"_

"_Your inevitable destiny."_

"Um, yeah we did not too long ago," Tenten jumped in, as the girls all looked away. Kiba raised an eyebrow, giving an expression as if he thought there was something they weren't telling him. He figured it was none of his business and shrugged it off.

"Look! There's the school!" squeaked Hinata pointing ahead. They all looked up and gazed at the building. It was pretty hard to miss; it being one of the largest buildings around. As they approached, the atmosphere got more and more crowded with teenagers.

"_You may try to escape it. Oh, try as you might. But it will happen. You will encounter the fates chosen for you."_

They approached the stairs, and suddenly someone careless knocked into Ino forcefully, sending her to the ground. She squinted her eyes with the pain, which quickly turned to anger. Before she could say a word, her friends jumped to her rescue.

"Hey, what was that for?" Tenten yelled at the back of the person who had knocked Ino down. The person stopped. All the girls could see was a large fan perched on the person's back.

"You heard her!" joined Sakura. "What was that all about?" she repeated. The person turned around. It was a girl who looked like she was in her senior year. She had four spiky, dirty-blond ponytails around her head. She had on a short purple dress with fishnets. _Uh…slut?_ all the girls thought. Their ankles began to twinge faintly, but they were too angry to notice.

"Yeah I heard you," said the girl walking steadily towards them. "I just chose not to listen," she said simply. Tenten and Sakura's fists clenched, and Hinata was slowly backing away. Ino was standing up and dusting dirt off her self. She clenched her lower back, which was in quite some pain. Kiba however, clenched his jaw. This was not the kind of fight they should be getting into on the first day. Especially not with this person.

"You are such a jerk," scoffed Ino. Normally, Ino could have said and done much worse, but she sensed a bad aura coming from this girl and chose not to mess with her. She winced as her ankle stung sharply, and a voice rang out within her head.

"_Sure, you will make friends. But your enemies will exceed them by far."_

"You know what, _skank?"_ the girl went on, poking Ino roughly on the forehead at the word 'skank'. Ino didn't move or show any reaction, which aggravated her attacker even more. She drew her fist back for a punch. Everyone gasped and Ino was ready to dodge when necessary. But the girl then laughed to herself and slowly released. "You know what? You're not even worth it. Just stay out of my way," she said, giving Ino an additional shove. With that, she left leaving the girls speechless.

"Yeah…um, that was Temari," said Kiba. "She was a transfer student last year from the Sand Village and she's very powerful," he said seriously. "_Very_," He emphasized. The girls looked after the girl named Temari in slight anger and slight relief. They were horrified of what she could have done to them, but relieved she didn't do it.

"We should go get our schedules now," said Hinata breaking the trance they were all in. They all snapped out of it and agreed.

When they actually entered the building, the girls nearly recoiled. With binders, notebooks, papers and pencils thrown here and there, with lockers opened and belongings spilling out, the place looked post-nuclear. Many heads, a majority belonging to males, turned and shamelessly stared at the girls.

Lead by Kiba, they simply ignored their gawkers and began stepping over all the things in the path of the hallway until they reached the office. Kiba stopped.

"I guess the tour guide will be leaving you guys here," he said, as the girls smiled with appreciation. "If you ever need me though, my locker is…" he looked at his own schedule, and his eyes widened. "Two over from the girl's room! The bottom one. So I guess I'll be seeing you ladies a lot." He winked, and walked away as the girls laughed. They were grateful for his help. They went into the office, only to be immediately wrapped up in a strong hug.

"Girls!" sang Tsunade, the 5th Hokage and principle. "I'm so happy you have finally joined us!" she happily twirled over to her file cabinet to get their papers and schedules. The girls stared at her awe-struck. They had not seen Tsunade so happy before.

"…Thank you…Tsunade…" said Hinata politely taking the files from Tsunade, as her excessive dancing around had nearly caused damage to them. At this point, she was so happy they had to start dodging her. It was then the girls decided it was best that they leave.

"We'll see you later Tsunade!" said all the girls at once.

"Bye giiiiirls!" sang Tsunade. The girls left the room and exchanged bewildered expressions.

"What was that all about?" asked Tenten glancing back into the room containing the ecstatic Tsunade.

"_Superiors will not save you. Friends will sure as Hell not save you. The only thing that stands a chance at saving you is…"_

"No idea." Said Ino and Sakura, in regard to Tenten's remark.

"Here are our files…Tenten…Ino…Sakura…" said Hinata as she passed each file to her friends. They each flipped through the papers until they got to their schedules and immediately compared them.

They were happy to find that they had all their specials classes together, which included Gym (Gai), Art (Kurenai), Theater (Ebisu), Health (Jiraiya AN: yes, Jiraiya teaches at the school), and Drug Ed (Tsunade herself). It wasn't incredible, but it's lucky they were even in that many together.

"So, what did you guys think of Kiba?" Sakura asked, putting a hand on her hip.

"He was really nice," said Hinata.

"And pretty cute," said Tenten evilly.

"Yeah, but I'll bet he'd be hott if he put his hood down," added Ino. The rest of them nodded in agreement. Just before they could say anything more, the bell rang.

"Crap, we haven't even found our lockers yet," said Ino, biting her lower lip.

"We can find them later, we need to get to class," said Tenten. With a last good-luck hug, the four separated and took down different hallways. Their first classes were separate. That bell might be the longest bell they ever experience in their lives.

"_That being said…I will let you go. I have given you a fair warning."_

**That's the second chappie. Don't worry; it will all be strung together soon. Also, I won't make separate chapters for each and every bell because that will take forever and it would be incredibly boring. I will make the proper intervals when necessary. The annoying thing is my computer…all these character names are foreign to it so it's near impossible to spell check without 90 of the check being character names. It knows Sakura, but it thinks "Ino" should be "ion," "Hinata" should be "piñata," "Tenten" should be "tenet" and "Kiba" should be "kebab." That comes to show how hip and happening my computer is. But ASIDE FROM THAT, I promise things will get a little more interesting, and by interesting, I mean THE boys will get involved ; ). Just read on please, and R and R also!**


	3. Bell One: Tenten's Friendly Encounter

**Hey again guys- thanks for all of your reviews! This chapter along with the next few will shed some light on a few things you guys have probably been wondering about. So, read up and enjoy!**

Chapter 3: Tenten's "Friendly" Encounter

Tenten opened the door to her Science class. She had never seen so many students crammed in one room in her life. All of them were up and about, catching up with each other and talking about their summers. There was, however, one boy who she couldn't really make out physically, but she could tell he was sitting down and not talking nor moving. _Looks like a real stiff. _A spot on Tenten's ankle began to vibrate and throb ever so slightly. She felt a small drop of sweat trickle down her temple. She only sweated like that when she was particularly nervous about something. Tenten didn't want to attract any unwanted attention by worrying about something no one else could understand.

Tenten shrugged off the memories that began to surface in her head and looked around nervously, having no idea where to sit. She wanted to be one of the other students who had friends there since elementary school and knew everyone. Tenten let out a sigh and resorted to simply leaning against a wall until the teacher came.

_Crunch, crunch, _Tenten heard. The crunching noises got louder until she looked to her left to see a short and stout boy with a bag of chips in hand. He had red swirls on his cheeks and a muffler around his neck. He was facing towards her with a smile on his face, and about six chips in his mouth.

"Hi!" said the boy. "You must be new here. I'm Chouji Akimichi!" he said, holding out a hand that was greasy from potato chip eating. Tenten knew it was common courtesy to accept this gesture, so she shook it and figured she would wash her hands later. She just hoped he didn't lick his fingers.

"Nice to meet you," said Tenten, happy that at least one person chose to acknowledge her existence. "I'm Tenten."

"Well Tenten, It's great to have you here! Let's go find seats," he said, leading her to the desk formations.

"Aren't we assigned to certain desks?" asked Tenten looking around for a desk that someone wasn't sitting or arm wrestling on.

"Not at this school we're not," said Chouji, plopping down into a seat two from the window. Tenten took the one next to him, which also ended up with her next to the stiff from earlier. Tenten managed a smile at him, but he didn't see it. He had raven black hair that went to his mid-back. It was tied at the end to keep it contained. His eyes were closed as if he were napping, and his arms were crossed over his chest. He had on a tan short-sleeved shirt and dark shorts. For whatever reason, his left arm and left leg were bandaged. On his desk, he had a notebook with a corner sticking out on the edge. Tenten caught a glimpse of a small seal that had been quickly drawn on the corner, as if someone wrote it down before they could forget it. Her ankle throbbed harder. Tenten squinted her eyes closed and hoped that it didn't mean anything. _That seal…_

_A tall, shadowy woman stood over Tenten and looked down on her in a superior manner._

_"You," she said in an icy voice. "You are particularly strong. But where there is strength, there lies weakness. Your fate will find this weakness." Tenten looked up at her boldly._

_"You couldn't find that weakness if you tried," she said as-a-matter-of-factly. This angered the tall woman. She grabbed Tenten by the ankle and pressed her palm to it. Tenten screeched in pain. Once the shadowy woman released her grip, Tenten looked down in horror to see a seal upon her ankle. A circle with three ragged lines evenly spaced branching out from it._

_"It would do you some good to watch that mouth of yours," the mysterious woman said, as Tenten clutched her ankle in pain and slight remorse. "It may get you into even more trouble." With slight difficulty, Tenten stood up._

_"If you think this will slow me down, you are mistaken," she said, power and bravery returning to her voice. The icy woman bent down to Tenten's height._

_"Ah, Tenten, but it is you who is mistaken," she said. "You may be a fighter at heart, but if you insist on pursuing the path you currently follow, stronger forces will only fight you back. You may suffer losses…terrible ones." Tenten thought about her friends, and doubted her meaning of existence if she were to loose them along with everyone else. She tightened her fists. "And once you have lost all you can loose," the woman went on, "...the situation will be beyond your control."_

Tenten cringed at her memory before snapping back into reality. She directed a questioning look at Chouji. "That's Neji Hyuuga," whispered Chouji. "You may not want to disrupt him now. He's meditating I think." Tenten nodded and mouthed the word "oh." Right then, something Chouji said stuck out in her brain. Hyuuga? Is he related to Hinata? Why didn't she tell her or the others that she had family at the school? _He looks familiar…why is it that he looks so familiar? Maybe…no I doubt it._

"Ok, boys and girls, that's enough chit-chat," said the teacher as she walked in. "Summer is out I'm afraid, and school's in. I need you to settle down." The teens all sighed and took any seat they could find. Once the teacher was sure they all were focusing, or at least enough to listen to her teachings, she began talking. "I'm Professor Minoru (AN: I may have to make up some of the teachers since there aren't enough sensei to fill the spaces). I am quite obviously your Science teacher, and I will lay down the rules for you now." She talked boldly and strictly as she walked around her desk. "I will have no sleeping, interrupting, whispering, chatting, passing notes, or _eating _in this class Mr. Akimichi," said Professor Minoru as she snatched Chouji's bag of chips out of his hands.

"Sorry Professor." Said Chouji looking down.

"Meet my eyes when you speak to me, Mr. Akimichi," said the professor harshly. Tenten watched this incredulously. _What a witch!_

Chouji looked up. "I'm sorry Professor," he said looking her in eye. Professor Minoru, satisfied with Chouji's apology, walked back to her desk. Tenten looked over at the embarrassed Chouji and immediately felt bad for him.

"Now, if there are no more interruptions, perhaps we can begin working." This startled the class.

"Um, Professor, we're not supposed to do any real work on the first day, remember?" asked a brave voice from the back. Minoru shot a look at the girl in a 'how-dare-you-challenge-me' way.

"Hm, since you all have such good memory, why don't I give you a nice little pop quiz, to see just how much _you_ remember," said Minoru, taking out a stack of quizzes she was undoubtedly going to hand out with or without the girl's comment. Everyone groaned.

"What did I say about talking?" asked the professor. The students shut up, and Minoru began to pass out the papers. When Tenten got hers, she had no clue as to what they had learned last year. This class looked almost a year ahead of her old school, and how could she possibly attempt to reason with the witch? Tenten clenched her jaw and turned her head. The Hyuuga boy had long since awakened, and Tenten could now see his pearly white eyes. He was definitely related to Hinata.

"Why, may I ask, are you staring at me?" Neji asked a red-faced Tenten, without brining up his head. _How did he notice me looking at him? I didn't even turn my head!_

"There's very little I don't see," he said, as if reading her thoughts. "So don't think about trying anything." Tenten knew he was talking about cheating off his test, which she would never do anyway. She was taken aback.

"Why would I want to cheat off someone like you?" she snapped back.

"Miss Tenten! Were you listening when I announced the rules? Now be quiet!" Tenten sank down in her chair, even more red-faced than before.

"Sorry Professor Minoru." She said dully. Tenten decided to begin her test after one last evil glare at Neji.

Neji smirked. _Looks like Science class will become increasingly more fun this year,_ he thought, as he stood up to turn his test in. _But…I cannot help but wonder why that girl seems to stick out in my memory. I do not have any recollection of meeting her. Could she be one of…? No, it's impossible…_Neji ignored his assumption and put his paper face-down onto Minoru's desk. Everyone noticed his oddly quick finish, but weren't surprised. What did they expect from the Hyuuga genius? Tenten, unfortunately, was not aware of this.

_Who does he think he is? That no good son of a…_Tenten had been writing so hard that the tip of her pencil snapped. _Damn!_ Tenten thought, as she got up to sharpen it.

Tenten was too busy cursing Neji in her mind to notice the genius coming toward her. She accidentally walked into him very hard. He was much taller than her, so her face was about up to his collarbone. _Wow…he's got some muscular abs…agh! What am I thinking? He's a no good son of a…_

"Tenten?" asked Neji, snapping her back into reality. She looked up at him and noticed a raised eyebrow. She suddenly realized she was still pressed against him. She jumped back on impulse.

"Uh…yeah?" she asked, her face now reaching the peak of its crimson, and her ankle throbs reaching an all time high.

"I need to get to my desk."

Tenten walked around him. "Uh…oh yeah…sorry," she said. Neji sat down in his desk, and Tenten made her way to the pencil sharpener. She sighed. _It's going to be a long year…_

**Agh, school is starting up and consequently I may be finding myself short on time. No worries! As long as people keep enjoying the story I'll keep it going! My love for writting shall never die! pumps fist in air triumpantly**

**ahem. Did I mention I just had a medium frostie? Anyway, R and R please!**


	4. Bell One: Hinata and the Centipede

**Hey again! I just noticed the name of this chapter sounds like a name for some Roald Dahl book! "Hinata and the Centipede." "James and the Giant Peach." "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Well I think that all sort of fits. I was at a loss for what to name this chapter, so I just took the two most significant people/things in it and named it after them. Before I spoil anything else, I'll stop now!**

Chapter four

Bell 1: Hinata and the Centipede

Hinata walked into her geography class, attempting to feel and look as confident as she could. She did not want to be stepped all over as she had been at her last school. Things in her classroom were rather calm. People were in their seats tending to silent reading, drawing, or other things. One boy, however, would not keep still.

"Want your bugs back? Come get em' Shino!" A short and energetic spiky-headed blond boy leapt up onto a desk, a jar of assorted bugs and insects in his hand. He waved it up in the air tauntingly.

"Naruto," growled a calm yet annoyed voice beside him. "Give me back my bugs and I promise not to critically injure you." The boy, who was apparently Shino, wore a gray jacket buttoned up as far as just above his mouth. He wore small circular shades and seemed to have his hands constantly rested deep within his pockets.

"Injure me huh?" asked the boy named Naruto, passing the bug jar from one hand to another and sticking out his tongue. "You need your bugs to use any of your jutsus or attacks. And looks like I have them right- OW!" Shino had swiped Naruto's feet out from under him, sending him falling to the floor. Shino used that time to grab his bugs back. Hinata's eyes widened. She really didn't like being the bystander, having to always watch other people get hurt. She ran to catch Naruto before he suffered too brutal a fall. She just barely got him, getting smooshed herself in the process. Naruto looked around.

"Hey! What happened? Why didn't I get hurt?" then Naruto gasped. "The power of the nine-tails fox must have saved me!" he slowly looked down at his stomach in glee. Shino just sighed and bonked him on the head.

"You idiot!" Shino said, as Naruto held an anime-style bump on his head in pain. "That girl beneath you, who is probably getting squashed to death right now, caught you." Naruto's eyes widened, and he quickly jumped off Hinata.

"Sorry!" he said with a big smile while scratching the back of his head. "I wouldn't want to hurt my savior, now would I?" he asked. Hinata turned red. Just as she did, her ankle flared up in pain. She cringed and ran her hand down the back of her calve to her ankle. As soon as this happened, a vision from Hinata's past came flowing into her mind.

"And as for you." The tall shadowy woman's height in contrast to the small girl was very intimidating. The girl shivered. "You are weak and fragile." Hinata bowed her head. "People like you will never succeed. If it weren't for the help of you're friends, you probably would not even be alive right now." She began to brush back Hinata's dark hair in mock worry. Hinata had begun to cry into her sleeve. "I'm right aren't I?"

"_N-no, you are n-not," Hinata stuttered quietly to the floor between sobs. The shadowed over woman wrinkled her brow._

"_Is that so?" she asked as she stroked her chin thoughtfully. Hinata was confused as to why she had not been incinerated then and there by this woman because of her answer. "Come a bit closer Hinata," Hinata stood her ground. The shadowed woman laughed icily. Her laugh was pain to her surroundings' ears. "It's alright, little one, I will not hurt you." Hinata was hesitant, but she slowly came forward. "Now, show me your left ankle." The tall woman said in a twistedly sweet tone. Hinata did so. Just as she did, her ankle was immediately seized by the towering woman. Before she knew it, she felt great pain on her ankle, as if she were being branded. After she opened her eyes to look at the damage, all she could see was a small circle with three swiggly lines coming out from the center, as if they were flowing like water._

"_Do you see, now?" shouted the tall woman, grabbing the squealing Hinata by her collar and lifting her up a foot. "Not only are you weak, but you are ignorant as well! This is why you will not make it. Trusting your enemies just because they tell you to? You will certainly perish long before the others." Hinata bit her lip, knowing perfectly well who the 'others' were. The titanic woman slowly brought down Hinata as she hissed, "I'm not the only one who sees it. They do too."_

"You ok?" Naruto asked worriedly. Hinata had unconsciously shed a tear as she recalled this moment. Naruto had thought it was due to his falling on her. "I hope I didn't squish you that hard!" Hinata waved her hand in a nonchalant manner.

"I-it's n-n-nothing N-na-naruto." She stuttered, a habit that she thought she had kicked with the help of her friends over that past summer. She only stuttered when really nervous about something…or someone. _But it is actually the farthest thing from nothing._

"Oh, well, I'm Naruto Uzamaki!" said Naruto happily, holding out his hand. Hinata looked at it for a while speechless. She blushed more. For a little while, they both stood in the same position. Naruto cheerfully holding out a hand, and Hinata too bashful to take it. Naruto's cheerful face soon turned to confusion."Um, ok then. I'll be at that desk over there if you have questions or anything." Naruto took back the hand he had held out and then pointed to a desk in the back corner of the room before walking away. Hinata was too embarrassed to even notice the increasingly sharp pain in her ankle. She mentally slapped herself. _How could you be so stupid? He offered you his hand, all you had to do was shake it! SHAKE IT. HAND SHAKE. It's not that hard, Hinata!_

"You'll have to excuse that one," sighed a voice behind Hinata. Hinata turned around to see Shino shaking his head. "I believe he is a recent escape from the asylum." Hinata's face began to take on its usual shade of pale.

"Oh…" she said, giggling at the humor as she looked over her shoulder at Naruto, who was then reading a comic book.

"A thousand years of pain! Classic!" Naruto laughed obnoxiously.

"You should have let him take the fall," Shino said half to himself. Hinata was sure that if she could see his eyes, he would be rolling them just then. "I'm Shino Aburame," said Shino, choosing not to hold out his hand, as he was under the impression that this girl didn't take that offer very well.

"Hinata Hyuuga," said Hinata quietly, looking him in the eye, er, lense.

"You wouldn't be related to Neji Hyuuga would you?" asked Shino curiously. Just as Hinata was about the answer, the teacher arrived.

"Ok guys, have a seat, all of you," said a man with a mask covering his nose and down, and a forehead protector that limped to cover his left eye. He had gray hair that stuck in some gravity-defiying way (AN: then again, is there ever an anime character without gravity defiying hair?). "That means you, Naruto. Get down from there!" Naruto had abandoned his comic book and had taken to crawling up the wall for some reason.

"I'm just practicing chakra control Kakashi!" explained Naruto, giving the teacher puppy eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," said the teacher, as if he had heard this excuse many times before. He threw a kunai just inches by Naruto's head. Startled, Naruto unstuck from the wall and fell to the floor, this time with no one to break his fall. Naruto cried anime style and rubbed a big welt on his head.

"Kakashi!" whined Naruto.

"Do take a seat now Naruto," said the teacher, pointing to Naruto's desk. Naruto succumbed and reluctantly sat down.

"Good. Now, I'm Mr. Hitake Kakashi, but you may simply call me Kakashi if you like. I will be your Geography teacher for this year," said the teacher. Hinata had been sitting next to Shino, who was prodding a centipede.

"Don't die on me now, Ursula!" Shino begged the small motionless bug in a whisper.

"Is there a problem Mr. Aburame?" Kakashi asked tiredly.

"Yes, Mr. Hitake. Ursula is dead!" said Shino in a depressed tone.

"Ok, who is Ursula?" asked Kakashi in an I'm-too-old-for-this voice. He walked over to Shino's desk.

"My centipede- no, not that one, that one…yes." Shino said, pointing out "Ursula" to Kakashi. Kakashi was obviously ticked that his class time was disturbed by the death of a centipede. Kakashi sighed. _Gai will never let me live this one down…I'll just have to make a lesson out of it. _Kakashi thought to himself for a second. _How will I make a lesson out of a centipede? Ah, I have an idea…_

"People, gather round Shino's desk," said Kakashi as he walked over to pull out a map. The students obeyed and each sat around Shino's insect-infested desk. "Everyone take a look at, er, Ursula." Shino pointed Ursula out, and all the students leaned in to look at it, all of them wondering why on earth they were all examining a dead centipede (AN: Let's just assume that in this world, centipedes don't curl and shrivel up when they die.) "If you look closely, she has an intricate design down her frame." They all looked closer at the centipedes back and all nodded once they saw the design. Kakashi then picked up a book. He attempted to lick his index finger, only for it to be blocked by his mask. Deciding it wasn't that necessary anyway, he began to flip through the pages. He stopped at one. "Centipedes with such a design are rarely found in Konoha, and are native to the Sound Village." He pointed to the region in the Sand Village in which the bug came from. Everyone paused at the mention of the Sound Village, then looked at the bug.

"Well then, thank God it's dead!" said a happy Naruto, suddenly appearing behind Hinata causing her to jump in her seat. He laughed. "Sorry!" he said to her. Shino was angered.

"What do you mean 'thank God it's dead'? First off, Ursula does in fact have a gender, and second off-"

"That's enough Shino, no need to get defensive," interrupted Kakashi stepping between the two boys. "And though Ursula here may be from the Sound Village, this does not mean she possesses the same evil as them. She is only an insect after all." The students nodded, and many 'well, I knew that already' and 'I wasn't worried for one second' words were passed between each student. Kakashi laughed to himself. _Great save if I do say so myself._

As the chit-chat arose, Naruto pulled a chair up to Hinata's desk. "Hey, what's your name anyway? I feel like we've met." At this, Hinata blushed lightly.

"I-it's Hi-hinata Hyuuga." Naruto's eyes widened at her last name, and before he could make the signature remark about Neji, Hinata said, "And n-no, I d-do n-not believe we have met before." She managed a small smile, and noticed she was gaining slightly more control over her stuttering the more she talked to him. Naruto thought for a bit longer, then shrugged.

"Well, we are now!" he said. "Now let's try this again." He held out his hand, and this time, Hinata shook it. Naruto smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Hinata Hyuuga!" Hinata's small smile grew more and more, but the two's moment was broken when Kakashi asked them all to take out some paper and a pencil. The two without looking reached for a pencil. They ended up grabbing the same one, leaving their hands touching one another's. (AN: I know, the cliché accidental hand hold, but I thought it would work nicely with these two.) They both blushed incredibly, and quickly pulled their hands away.

"Sorry," they both said at once, before blushing even more. Naruto stood up.

"I should go to my desk now," he said. Hinata nodded. "See you later Hinata!" He walked back to his desk. Hinata's face was still burning. Shino, who had been wrapping Ursula's centipede corpse neatly in a tissue, had seen the previous events and smiled. _Things are already heating up between those two, _he thought. _They will realize it soon enough. _He shook his head, still smiling.

Hinata looked at her hand that Naruto had put his own over. She smiled, and began listening to Kakashi. _Even though we have only just met…I suddenly feel like I've known him before too._

**That's the third. I'm almost done with the fifth, but it may take a bit of time only cuz I have to finish and proofread it, but when i do I will post it right away! There is a slight motif going as you might see, but though there is a motif, each character will have very dinstinct stories to them. In two more chapters, the girls will be together again so it won't be single character chapters all the way through. The answer the things are drawing closer, so look for the next chappie!**


	5. Bell One: Sakura's Close Call

**Hey again, thanks for your reviews everyone! I am truly honored. Seriously, I'm so weird I will rush to my computer after school or soccer like "MUST…SEE…REVIEWS!" Well, not exactly like that, but you know. Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy this chappie!**

Chapter 5

Bell One: Sakura's Close Call

Sakura sat at her place in math class while the people surrounding her mingled. Like Tenten, she felt slightly intimidated by all the people who had happy pasts with friends and families, whereas her's and her friend's were the complete opposite.

Getting bored of sitting, Sakura took out her calculator and began to play around with random features. Games, graphs, cheats…cheats? Without thinking twice, Sakura deleted them (AN: I know I'm controlling where this is going, but that little fool! Who deletes cheats? Well I guess my conscience would pester me to do the same). She took a lot more joy in solving problems then taking the short cut around them.

"Why, hello there!" Sakura looked up at the source of the voice. It took all her might not to flinch when she saw his appearance. He had a shiny ebony bowl cut, a spandex green suit and the biggest eye brows she had ever seen. "Who, may I ask, might you be?" The boy asked in a loud and clear voice. Sakura stuttered a response.

"S-sakura Haruno," she answered, still in surprise.

"It's very nice to meet a girl of such youthful spirit and appearance such as yourself Sakura Haruno! I am Rock Lee. But you may call me…" he spun around a few times to add to the effect. "LEE!" He struck the nice guy pose with a nice _ping_ of his pearly white teeth. Sakura blinked.

"It's very nice to meet you Lee," said Sakura, not wanting to come off rude to her first possible friend in this class. Lee took this as a welcome, and slid into the seat next to her.

"I know how it feels to be alone in a crowd of people! If there is anything I can do to make your new kid experience any easier, please inform me!" Lee said, leaning in closer to Sakura. Sakura scoot to the opposite side little, and smiled.

"Thanks Lee! I will." She ignored his odd appearance and decided he was a very nice guy. He, unlike everyone else in the room, took the time of day to talk to her so he deserved her undivided attention.

That is until all of a sudden, there was collective gasp amongst the females of the room. Sakura looked up.

"Sasuke!" "It's Him!" "Sasuke's here!" were just a few of the many remarks Sakura over heard from the girls. She looked at Lee, confused.

"That's Sasuke Uchiha," sighed Lee with annoyance and even a little bit of anger in his voice. "He's pretty much the king of this place." He pretended not to notice Sakura's interested expression.

She looked at the doorway where the rest of the girls were staring. Walking slowly and nonchalantly was a dark blue haired boy with his hands jammed in his pockets. He ignored the whispering and staring that was quite blatantly taking place around him. He had a blue short-sleeved shirt with a large collar and the Uchiha family crest on the back, along with khaki shorts and arm protectors. Sakura blushed. _No wonder he has so many fan girls…he _is _really hott. I swear I've seen him around. Probably at the mall or something. _Unfortunately, the fact that her ankle stung every time she looked at him mildly took away from the effect.

"Are you alright, Sakura?" Lee asked worriedly, noticing Sakura's slight cringe of pain.

"Uh…yeah," replied Sakura. She could tell she trusted Lee already, but not nearly so much as to trust him with her and her friends' secret. "I'm fine." But it wasn't fine. Sakura was beginning to remember something she was desperately trying to forget.

"You certainly are the brainy type aren't you?" asked the tall shadowy woman of Sakura. Sakura folded her arms.

"_That's right. So I know enough to get me as well as my friends out of this 'fate' you seem to be going on about." Sakura had thought she had won, but she was far from it. She was now caught in a body bind caused by a strange incantation. "No…" she grunted as she strived to break free. Even though she was strong, she was not nearly strong enough to break the tight grip this invisible force had on her body._

_The mysterious woman walked over the struggling Sakura and quickly slapped her palm to Sakura's left ankle. Sakura was too well bound to scream, but her pain was indescribable. As soon as it was done, the invisible bind let loose it's hold on Sakura, and she tumbled to the cold hard floor, panting._

"_You always were a know-it-all," said the towering woman, walking back to her original post. "If you're not careful, that oversized brain might become a bit of a burden for you." Sakura stood up and brushed the dirt off her legs. "Who knows…maybe when you need it most…it will turn on you." With that, the large woman faded away, leaving a wounded Sakura to ponder._

Sakura stared intently down at her desk, trying to look for a greater meaning within what the woman said to her. But as hard as she thought, she found nothing.

"Sakura…? Hello?" Lee slowly waved a hand in Sakura' s line of vision, perking her up again.

"Oh um, my bad," Sakura said as she composed herself. "I just sort of spaced." After this was said, Sakura looked back down at the main focal point of the room.

Although she was just as entranced as every other girl in the room, Sakura pretended not to pay attention to Sasuke and began pressing random buttons on her calculator.

As Sasuke began walking through the many desks, the pink-haired girl caught his eye. _What's this?_ He thought to himself. _A girl who's not pointlessly drooling over me? This seems interesting._ He brashly walked by all of the swooning fan girls and sat in the seat beside Sakura. _Especially since I already feel a sort of connection._

Sakura pretended to only just notice his presence, as she put a halt to her random typing. She looked at him and smiled. "Hey," she said, feeling envious eyes and glares boring into her from all directions.

Sasuke played it cool as usual. "Hn," he replied. Sakura frowned. _Alrighty then._ She took back to her random button hitting, disappointed in Sasuke's lack of welcome.

"That's one odd equation you have there," said the voice next to her. _So now he speaks. _Sasuke was peering slightly over at her calculator. Sakura looked down to at her calculator screen and immediately turned red in the face with embarrassment.

1dfvgj4568:\-345gld k1zd er)fdsgg(xtsjf

**Error occurred**

"Uh…hehe…about that." As smart as Sakura was, she could not summon up an excuse to slip out of this one. Why was that?

"Hello, Class, I'm Akio!" A man, whom Sakura assumed was the math teacher, appeared before all of them. "Welcome to your first math class!" he said cheerfully. _Someone likes his job a lot._ Akio walked to the chalkboard and quickly but neatly wrote something down. They were questions. "This is a small questionnaire about you! I would like you to put down your answers on a separate sheet of paper, then exchange them with your neighbors so you can learn more about one another."

"That's a great idea, Sir!" said Lee, glancing at Sakura who hadn't noticed his implication. Akio smiled.

"I'm glad you think so." Akio said, as he passed a piece of loose-leaf to each person in the class. "You may all begin now."

Sakura put her name down and numbered her paper. She looked at the first question.

1. Are you new to this school?

_Yes_

2. If so, where did you go previously?

A different school 

3. Do you have any siblings?

No 

4. Do you have friends you've known for a while? If so, who are they?

_Yes. They are Ino Yamanaka, Tenten, and Hinata Hyuuga._

5. What is your favorite subject?

Math 

6. Were you born in Konoha, or elsewhere?

Sakura bit the head of her pencil at this question. Should she answer the question correctly and say elsewhere? But if she did that, she risked Lee or Sasuke asking her where in particular, and there was no explaining where she came from. But then, she couldn't just say she was from Konoha, because then people would wonder why she didn't come to this school in the first place. Sakura, the smart and crafty kunoichi, was left completely stumped over one small question on a meaningless questionnaire. Sakura left it blank, in hopes it wouldn't be much of a future problem.

7. Do you often get good grades?

_Yes._

Sakura moved on to the last question, happy to know there would be no more risky stumpers.

8. Do you find yourself attractive?

This did not stump Sakura, but it did confuse her. Why the heck was this on the questionnaire? Of what significance is it to our neighbors either? She just shrugged and answered it anyway.

_I guess so._

Sakura put down her pencil and looked around the room. Everyone except for about four people had finished before her because of the time she took pondering the sixth question. Lee was on of the four people not to finish yet. He had finished all except the fourth question.

"I certainly have long term friends," he said to himself. "I'm just having trouble remembering them." Sakura saw that he had Kiba, Shino and Chouji written down, but Lee felt that that was not enough to impress the girl next to him when she read his questionnaire. "Aha! I know!" Lee scribbled down the word "Gai". Sakura scrunched up her nose. _A teacher?_ Lee put his pencil down. The rest of the class had finished as well.

"It looks like we have all finished, so I would like you to exchange in this fashion…" Akio began to number off pairs. As he numbered off, there were a series of cheers and groans concerning the pairings. When Akio got around to Sakura's desk, he turned the papers around to read the names. "Sakura Haruno with…" he looked at another paper. "Sasuke Uchiha." _Cool. Maybe I'll actually get to find out some stuff about this guy!_ Lee's face fell. He had been preparing what he hoped would be impressive answers, and was sad that they were in vain. With a small glare at Sasuke, he exchanged his paper with the girl on the other side of him.

"I will be in the lounge for a bit to drop off some papers," said Akio as he picked up a stack of papers on the corner of his desk. "I trust you guys to be responsible young adults and stay quiet." He walked out of the room.

"So…here." Sakura held her paper out to Sasuke. He took it and set it aside, but did not look at it. "Maybe you would want to give me yours?" she asked him, hoping he knew what they were assigned to do.

"Why should I let a random stranger know personal facts about myself?" He asked without looking at Sakura. Sakura grew slightly angry, but tried not let it get the best of her. But as soon as her ankle ached again, she grew annoyed and it was too late.

"Hm, let me clarify the meaning of 'exchange papers' for you," said Sakura, offended by Sasuke's attitude towards her. "You give me yours, I give you mine, and we both read them."

"Why should I want to read about a stranger?" he asked, still fixing his eyes forward. Lee, who had been listening to this, slammed his fist down on his desk, cracking it, and stood up, earning a lot of unwanted attention from the class.

"Don't you treat a new student that way, Uchiha! I don't care how powerful or smart you may be, it is wrong to be rude to a girl whose only wish is to get to know you!" Lee shouted at the Uchiha boy, ignoring all the girls evil glares at him for yelling at their angel. Sasuke continued to look forward as if he had not heard Lee at all. This only angered Lee more.

"Well then, Uchiha, if you are so sure of yourself, how about a fight?" Lee shouted louder at Sasuke, knowing he could never resist a challenge. Sasuke then shifted his gaze at the bowl-cut boy.

"I don't usually like fighting over stupid things," he said with a sideways glance at Sakura who returned it with a glare. "But this time I will make an exception." He stood up from his desk, and he and Lee began to stare each other down, normally the first phase before a hard-core fight. Sakura could sense the negative heat formulating between the two, and fearful of what may happen, she stood up.

"Please, don't fight!" she said, coming in between the two. Just then, Akio had walked back into the room.

"Did I just hear the word 'fight'?" he asked as he made his way up to the desks of Lee, Sakura and Sasuke. Sakura gulped. They were in trouble now. Fighting was not exactly the thing 'responsible young adults' would do.

"Sit down Miss Haruno," he said coldly. Sakura quivered as she sat down. Her ankle was bugging her again. Akio looked at the two boys with a very disciplinary look on his face. As cheerful a spirit as he had, he meant business when people disobeyed him.

"If you two boys were planning on going at each other in my classroom, you are sorely mistaken." He shoved the two boys away from each other, but they did not drop their death glares. "Now, I don't care who started it or who deserves it, I will not have my students tearing each other apart whenever I leave the room. Thank God there wasn't any damage done before I came back." He looked at the two boys sternly before ending his speech. "If this happens again, it's detention."

Lee folded his arms. _Detention? It will take a whole lot more than a mere detention to keep me from defending someone dear, _he thought as he sat back down in his desk.

Sasuke thrust his hands back into his pockets and closed his eyes. "Hn," he said simply as he walked back to his desk. _Why waste my time on that bushy browed idiot? I have deeper concerns on my mind…_he looked over at Sakura_…like getting to the bottom of why I sense a strange feeling coming from that girl. _

Sakura blushed when she caught Sasuke looking at her. _He may be a jerk, but he's still really hott! _ "Ow!" Sakura suddenly exclaimed, as the ankle pain rapidly increased.

"Are you alright Sakura?" asked Lee worriedly, bending down on one knee to examine Sakura's ankle.

"Wait…er…don't!" Sakura said as she tried to yank her ankle back, but it was too late. Lee had folded Sakura's sock over, which she had pulled up over he ankle after Kiba had noticed, and his eyes widened. Sakura squinted her eyes shut. _Uh oh…_

"Sakura, I had no idea you got tattoos!" he gasped as he looked at the design. It was a circle with three straight lines coming from the center.

"Why Sakura, I didn't know you were that kind of a person!" Akio said with a wave of his finger. "Don't go overboard! I don't want one of my students to become one of those gang mobster crackpot troublemaking…" he went on as he walked back to his desk.

Sakura opened her eyes, relieved. Sasuke, even though he was still peeved, had noticed the commotion too.

"Uh, yeah, me and my friends all got one on our ankles not too long ago." Sakura said to Lee, telling him the same lie Tenten had told Kiba.

"You did, huh?" Sasuke asked, leaning in closer to look at the design. He narrowed his eyes. _Can it be?_

"She just said she did! Why do you doubt her answer?" Lee said angrily as he hopped to his feet, pointing an accusatory finger at Sasuke. Before Sasuke could respond, the bell rang.

Lee gathered up his stuff and head for the door. He turned his head back at Sasuke. "This is not over, Uchiha!" with that, he left. Sakura waved him goodbye, and he waved back.

Sakura then got up to leave as well when a strong hand on her wrist brought her down into her chair again. "What are you doing?" she asked Sasuke. Sasuke looked at her seriously.

"Where did you go before you came here?" he asked her, not letting go of her wrist.

"Uh, why do you want to know?" Sakura said, as she sweated a bit in her temples.

"Just tell me," he said as he narrowed his eyes. Sakura searched for something, anything that would work as an excuse to get herself out of this. Not to say she didn't enjoy the fact that the class hottie was holding onto her wrist and leaning in on her, but this was not exactly the manner in which she would have wanted it to be done. In her fantasy, interrogation was not part of the script.

"Uh, I have to go meet up with my friends, sorry I have to go. Right now." She leapt up really fast, yanking her wrist free along with her. She bolted out of the room as fast as she could. As she walked down the long hallway, she looked over her shoulder. No one. _That was WAY too close…_

**That took a while! I didn't expect for it to be that long, but cool! Just a heads up, I have nothing against Lee, I repeat, I have NOTHING against Rock Lee! He is one of my favorite characters, so for any of you Rock Lee fans out there, I didn't intend to insult him in any way. Besides that, I would also like to point out that I do not think that all people with tattoos are gang mobster crackpot troublemakers. I just added that to fit Akio's perfectionist character. So I hope that cleared some things up if any of you had problems with those two parts of the chapter. I'm going to start the next one, but it may take a little longer than this one only because school has started and the world as we know it is coming to an end. When that ones done, I swear there will be a lot more questions answered, trust me! Thanks for reading, R and R!**


	6. Bell OneL Ino's Hero

Chapter 6

Bell One: Ino's hero

Ino sat in what was apparently her seat in her English class. As the teacher had not arrived yet, (they never do until like five minutes into the bell), she had taken to working diligently on a story she was writing. Well, some may call it a story. She called it her recollection of the worst moment of her life.

"Oh! Why, you are as much as a hot head as they all say!" a tall woman leapt back from the lunging Ino and held her hands up in an innocent manner.

"Shut up you bitch!" swore Ino. "You don't know anything about me or my friends! Just leave us alone!" Ino attempted to take another leap at her enemy but she was blown back with much force and sent flying into the wall opposite of the woman. Ino's impact was very hard, and she began to bleed down her neck and whimper slightly.

"_Watch it there, Ino!" the icy woman slowly walked towards Ino. "As much as you feel it's your responsibility to look after your little friends, you wouldn't want to get killed yourself in the process, now would you?" With only a small lift of her index finger, the shadowed woman levitated Ino off the ground. Ino struggled to break loose but it was no use; she was trapped. The towering woman took two of her fingers and pressed them to Ino's left ankle. It burned like crazy, but Ino would not express her pain further than squinting her eyes. _A real survivor never cries, a real survivor never cries, a real survivor never cries…_Ino repeatedly thought to herself as bottling up her pain became harder and harder. However, not a tear was shed. Not even when she saw the mark of a circle and three scratchy lines coming out, did she falter._

"_Ah, the same old tough Ino," said the woman, taking joy in watching Ino's struggling. "You will have to break one day, Ino," she said, then taking a step closer. "And I can only hope I am there to see it."_

Ino's thoughts and writing had been interrupted by the sound of light snoring coming from beside her. She looked over to see a boy with brown eyes and brown hair tied back into a high spiky ponytail, a netting shirt, small jacket and pants. His feet were up on the desk and he was leaning back. He had slightly drooled in his sleep.

Ino laughed to her self. _What a lazy guy! _However, her laugh was not muffled enough to go unheard by the boy.

The boy parted his eyelids ever so slightly. _That laugh…I know that laugh._ He was in too much of a daze to think further, and soon fell back asleep.

Ino looked at him for a bit. _He's kind of cute when he sleeps…even though I have never seen him awake. But something in me feels like I have._

"Hey," came a voice on the other side of Ino. She turned her head to look at a tall guy with a black one peace that came from his feet to up over his head, and had a lot of paint on his face. He carried a large wrapped object on his back (AN: I forgot what it was called).

"…hey!" Ino said smiling. Her new acquaintance returned it and slid into the seat next to her. To Ino's surprise, he scooted the chair closer to her as he did so. "I'm Ino Yamanaka."

"Ino…I like that name," said the guy smoothly as he took her hand and slowly shook it. Ino slightly blushed. "I'm Kankuro," he said.

"Nice to meet you," said Ino. Kankuro nodded in agreement. "If you don't mind telling me, who is this boy on my other side?" Ino asked curiously, eyeing the napping boy next to her. Kankuro frowned a bit.

"Oh, that's just Shikamaru Nara," he said with a 'whatever' wave of his hand. "He's a real lazy bum if you haven't noticed." To his dismay, Ino continued to look at Shikamaru as if this had only peaked her interest. _The name doesn't ring a bell. But he definitely does._

Kankuro was about to add something when the teacher walked in. "Alright class, settle down," said the teacher as he took his place in the front of the room. "Wake up Mr. Nara."

To Ino's glee, Shikamaru had finally opened his eyes and sat upright. "Right…sorry Iruka," he yawned before composing himself.

Ino blushed even more. _Scratch what I said before. He's much cuter when he's awake. _Though she did not know why she had such a growing interest in this boy, she did not try to find out. She just looked at him in curiosity. He could sense a face in the corner of his eye and turned his head. In the quick moment that their eyes met, they both blushed this time and looked away quickly. Ino's ankle stung in the process, but being her tough self, she ignored it.

"Due to some sudden teacher complications, I will not be able to teach this class today." Iruka said. The students cheered. Irritated, Iruka went on. "I will be out of the classroom, but I trust you to use this time as a _quiet study hall_. Not a time to associate with friends." He gave them all serious looks before exiting the classroom. Just as he did, everyone began talking and doing the exact opposite of what Iruka had told them. Technically, there was nothing to study since it was the first day. Iruka was most likely on a press for time. Shikamaru fell back asleep and Ino frowned. Kankuro scowled and got up to talk with some friends.

All of a sudden, Ino felt a violent tug of her hair from whoever was sitting behind her, followed by some snickers. _So first grade! _She thought as she turned around to face her 'bullies'.

"Oh? Do you need something Blondie?" asked the one behind her with an evil yet somewhat flirtatious smile. Ino was especially annoyed by these types, but kept a cool temper.

"Yes, I do believe you yanked at my hair a few seconds ago," she said through her teeth.

"What on earth gave you that idea?" the one beside idiot #1 said. Ino chose not waste her time on such people and rolled her eyes. She turned back around. After a few seconds, there were three harder yanks of her hair. This time it was actually very painful. (AN: All you girls out there know what its like when your hair is yanked at! The feeling when you could just hit something…or someone.)

"Will you stop already?" Ino exclaimed spinning her head around. The boys went bug eyed and innocent.

"What?" idiot #1 asked.

"You know what." Ino narrowed her eyes and store the boys down. "You know you're doing it, I know you're doing it, just give it up already."

"There is nothing to give up!" Idiot #3 said in a so-sue-me way. Ino made a "wtf" face before turning back around. _If they pull my hair again, I'll simply pound them, end of issue._

Ino was happy that nearly a minute went by without any disruptions from the idiot trio behind her. Assuming they knew better than to strike again, she flipped to an open page of her notebook.

"OW!" came a voice behind Ino. _What now?_ Ino turned around, ready to pound the first face she saw, but instead came to see something she would never expect. Idiot #1's hand was outstretched, as if ready to take another lock of Ino's hair, but was being gripped and twisted by another hand. Ino looked and saw that it was Shikamaru's.

"You troublesome idiot…leave her alone." Shikamaru said severely, now fully awake and giving the boys a strict face. When there was no immediate reply from the boys, Shikamaru twisted harder. "Well?" he asked again.

"Alright fine! We'll leave her alone!" yelled idiot #1. "Just…please…let…me…go!" Shikamaru did just that and turned back around, leaving the idiots ego-bruised. Ino turned around and looked at Shikamaru gratefully, too happy to regard the blistering pain in her ankle. Well, she did regard it, but did not draw physical attention to it.

"What?" he asked her.

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "They were really getting on my nerves." Shikamaru slightly slumped in his chair.

"Mine too. I've been in their classes for years now, and it's about time I shut them up." Shikamaru leaned back into his comfortable position. "Just so troublesome…" he sighed under his breath.

"Hm…nice save there prince charming." Kankuro came around in front of Ino and Shikamaru's desks. He held a dark and steady look at Shikamaru. "But I hope you don't get too cozy with Miss Yamanaka here…don't forget you have _other_ commitments." Kankuro reminded him. Ino frowned. _Other commitments?_

"Oh right, how could I forget," replied Shikamaru, sighing as if he didn't find Kankuro's words of all that big a value.

"Don't worry, you won't forget. Nara." Kankuro said, angered by Shikamaru's careless attitude.

"Is that a threat?" Shikamaru asked in a more aware tone.

"It could be," said Kankuro as he began to walk around Shikamaru's desk. "Leave Miss Yamanaka to me. And don't interfere" He whispered in Shikamaru's ear as he walked away. Ino, oblivious as to what just happened, quivered a bit.

"What…what was that about?" she sputtered, looking after Kankuro.

"Nothing." Shikamaru glared after Kankuro. For some reason, he could not bring himself to tell Ino what Kankuro had meant by "commitment". _Why can I not tell her? I usually can always be honest. But now…it just seems different. _"Just a troublesome lecture from a troublesome person." Shikamaru went with that and took on his comfortable position again.

In all of the commotion and drama that just took place in the last ten minutes, Ino had not noticed that she had desperately needed to use the restroom. It would be very unfortunate to have an accident where she was, seeing as she had a multitude of problems; She had a rather cute and mysterious boy beside her, she was wearing a skirt, she had mocking idiots behind her, and peeing your pants was just overall disgusting for a girl her age. She got up and left the room.

As Ino walked down the hallway, she was lost in her thoughts of the last bell. Kankuro had obviously flirted with her, no doubt about that, and was somewhat peeved at Shikamaru's 'coming to her rescue'. The boys behind her were not worth regarding, but her thoughts were completely thrown off at the conversation between Shika (AN: I'm going to start typing 'Shika" instead now because his full name is becoming hard to type all at once without it turning out like 'Shiakmura') and Kankuro. It seemed like though they were saying few words, they each knew what the other was implying. This annoyed Ino, because she felt completely disconnected. For all she knew, it could have concerned her! _Impossible…I only just came here. _When Ino reached the bathroom, she went into one of the many open stalls. She did her business and was about to come out when she heard other girls enter. She quickly sat back down and lifted her feet off the ground (AN: Sorry another author note. In this part of the chapter, think the bathroom part of the movie "Scream" basically.).

"So what's up in your class?" One of the girls asked.

"Not much…except that new girl Hinata. God, she is quiet. And that stutter! It drives me NUTS!" one of them replied, as the other girls giggled. Ino felt like strangling her.

"Yeah and the new girl in my class, Sakura?" another said. "I have never seen a bigger math geek in my life! She must keep all those facts in that big forehead of hers." Ino clutched the wall in anger.

"Oh, hey that reminds me!" another one added between laughs. "There's a new girl in my class also. Her names like…JinJin…LenLen…Tenten! That's it, Tenten. What a tomboy! She may dress like a girl, but the way she talks and what she likes are exactly like my older brothers!" It took all the power in Ino not to burst out of the stall then and there to teach the girls a lesson. But they were not done talking yet.

"But I can't believe that Naruto was actually _flirting _with that Hinata! I mean they are complete polar opposites. What can he possibly see in her?" One of them said with anger and jealousy in her voice. Ino smiled at this.

"Come to think of it, Sasuke sat next to Sakura today in class too!" the second one said. "Why? Was the first thing he saw in the room that forehead?" Ino's smile had grown even more with every word.

"Yeah, I noticed Tenten and Neji were talking to each other during our pop quiz today." The third one said. "Whatever he sees in a tomboy, I will never know."

Ino was extremely happy that her friends had also found guys. She was sure they would tell her all about it at lunch. She heard the girls leave, and then waited a minute before coming out. After washing her hands, she exited the bathroom only to be pinned to the wall by a strong pair of arms.

"Kankuro?" Ino asked incredulously as she tried to duck out. He would not let her. "What are you doing? Let me go!" Ino could see that Kankuro was far from doing what she said. He leaned in and kissed her on her lips. Her eyes widened in disgust she shoved him off of her, wiping off her lips with her arm. "What is wrong with you?" she asked him, as he grinned back at her evilly. "I can't believe you followed me and-" she was silenced by Kankuro's finger on her lips.

"Ssshh…" he said. "Wouldn't want to get caught out here would we?" Ino's eyes widened again in both horror and disgust, as he was about to lean in for another kiss. Just inches away from her lips, he was grasped by the neck and yanked away from Ino. Ino looked around Kankuro for the person who saved her from what could have been her worst nightmare, and saw that it was none other than Shika.

"You know what I find _really _troublesome?" Shika asked Kankuro without loosening his grip on his neck. "Not only do you bother my relaxation time not once, but _twice _in one day, but you also proceed to pester this innocent girl here." He gestured his head at Ino. "Now, I'll give you two choices. You could either leave her be, or you can be beaten to a pulp. The choice is yours." As Kankuro began to cough deathly, Shika decided to let him go. Kankuro began to cough again and panted like crazy once he was released.

"This…isn't…over…Nara." Kankuro panted. He walked away while massaging his neck. Ino stood her same ground, speechless. Shika had continued to look at Kankuro limping down the hallway. _Looks like things are getting crazy already. I think I will have to keep an eye on this one. _He glanced at Ino.

Ino had just processed what happened, and was happy about Shika's second save for her. But it was also then that she noticed…Kankuro had not answered Shika's question.

With Kankuro… 

Kankuro had just barely caught his breath and had sat in the desk in the far corner. He thought about the countless times Shika has gotten on his nerves. Just the thought of Shika made him even angrier. _That Nara boy might just be getting in the way…_


	7. Lunchtime Part One: Prophecy Revealed

**Wow, 27 reviews! Thank you everyone! Hugs all of you (urgh that was supposed to be put in astrix! Stupid editing thing). Since the "Bell One" series is over with, now is where the water reaches its boiling point. Well, for the most part, all the next chapters together do. But this is the beginning of it. Enjoy!**

Chapter 7

Lunchtime Part One: Prophecy Revealed

The four girls happily walked out of the lunch line together carrying trays with hot dogs, milk and cookies, the everyday school lunch (AN: If only there were hot dogs at my school…our hamburgers bounce. I'm so not kidding. If you throw one, it will bounce. Anyways…)

There were many tables to choose from since the cafeteria looked almost too big for the student body. All the girls were happy they didn't have to go through the new kid dilemma of where to sit at lunch, since they already came with basically their own crowd. They chose a table by the windows.

"So," Tenten said as she took a bite out of her hot dog. "How did half one of day one go for you guys?" She asked. At this, they all blushed. I bet you can guess who instantly entered their minds at this question.

"Well, I did meet someone in my geography class…" Hinata began as she twiddled her fingers. All the girls squealed and leaned in. "His name is N-n-naruto Uzamaki and I guess you can say we 'hit it off'" she turned even more read and her voice grew even softer as she spoke. All the girls clapped and smiled. Ino was relieved to know that what she overheard in the bathroom was as true as she thought it was.

"That's great Hinata!" Sakura said as their squealing ceased. "But I can't help but wonder why you stuttered his name." All the girls' heads turned back to Hinata when they noticed that Sakura was right.

"I think I like him a lot!" Hinata said with her head down, but still smiling. They patted her on the back. It's usually impossible for them to get Hinata to admit anything she doesn't want to.

"Since we're on the topic," began Sakura. "I met a guy I guess, but he's sort of different." All the girls grinned evilly.

"Ooh, different me like," said Tenten raising her eyebrows multiple times. Sakura laughed.

"His name is Sasuke Uchiha, and he's just about the hottest guy you will ever lay eyes on." This peaked the girls' interests as they all sat up. "His personality was sort of bleh, but he did choose to sit next to me instead of the raging fan girls around him." At this her friends listened even closer. At this point, all the chattering in the caf seemed to go by unheard to them. "But the thing is, he came this close to finding out our secret." She held up two of her fingers and separated them about a centimeter. Now, the girls were alarmed.

"Uh oh," said Ino, biting her lower lip. "How much does he know?" Sakura began to fiddle with her food.

"Just about the marks," she said. "The whole class saw it really, but he's the only one who suspected it. I ran away before he could milk any of the secret out of me." The girls sighed in relief, though they were still alarmed at the narrow escape.

"I met a guy too," Tenten said, breaking the silence. The girls were perky once more. "His names Neji…" she gave Hinata a stern look. "Neji _Hyuuga."_ Hinata froze. Tenten gave her a care-to-explain? Look.

"Alright," Hinata said. "He's my cousin," she confessed as the other girls gasped.

"Hinata, why didn't you tell us you had a cousin here?" Ino said in loud whisper.

"I didn't know he was here! Honestly…I didn't even know he was still _alive._" Hinata said seriously. All the girls exchanged a look. "I barely even knew him. When we were three and four, there was a large rebellion amongst the Hyuuga clan and many branch members got wiped out," she explained. "It was then I was sent away to…you know." All the girls nodded.

"Say no more," said Tenten quietly. "He sure does seem like a guy who has been through Hell. He's so grumpy…but in a charming way." She turned slightly red, something she had been doing a lot lately. All the girls stopped to ponder their bell one classes and a silence followed.

"Guys," Ino began as she thought harder into the current state of events. "How did the prophecy go again?" The rest of the girls turned pale in regard of the prophecy and fell silent. Sakura however, answered Ino's question.

"_Four chosen ones,_

_Four sentinels,_

_Four fellowships,_

_More enemies than imaginable._

_The four chosen ones will first lead a life of blissful ignorance_

_Until one day the truth is revealed._

_They will run, they will hide_

_But their fate is sealed._

_They attempt to begin again,_

_Which may prove to be their mistake_

_The cycle will begin all over again_

_Their worlds will once again quake._

_The guardians, fellowship and enemies will be met_

_Unconsciously, but still so._

_But just when this is realized_

_There is nowhere else to go._

_An encounter with an enemy_

_Proves to feel necessary, but of no use_

_And with only two words said,_

_All Hell will break loose"_

"That is a very nice poem Sakura!" The voice behind the girls interrupted Sakura's recital. "Did you write it yourself?" Sakura turned around to see Rock Lee from her math class. Her friends eyes widened in slight fascination and slight fear of his, er, ensemble.

"Um, sure. We were just helping Ino with a poem for her English class," Sakura said as she thought on her toes. The rest of the girls plastered on smiles and nodded.

"Oh, how nice of you Sakura!" he said smiling. "And I don't believe I have met your companions here," He gestured to Sakura's tablemates.

"Oh…right." Said Sakura. "Lee, that's Ino Yamanaka," she gestured to Ino who greeted Lee with a smile. "That's Hinata Hyuuga," Hinata gave a small wave. "And that's Tenten." Tenten nodded. "This is Rock Lee from my math class. He was the first person I made friends with here." Lee blushed at this.

"It was no problem Sakura!" he said. "If you ever need help, I am always here!" his stomach growled just then quite loud, and everyone looked at it. Lee turned red. "After I get some lunch! Till then Sakura!" Lee bolted to the lunch line.

"He seems…nice." Tenten said as they all stared after him.

"Um yeah…he is." Said Sakura. "But anyway," she changed the subject. "I see what you mean Ino…the prophecy is fitting almost perfectly." Sakura looked worried.

"Damn." Tenten said quietly. "That may explain why my seal has been hurting." All the girls looked at her.

"Yours too?" asked Ino.

"Mine has too." Hinata said.

"Same here." Sakura agreed. This confirmed the girls' danger. They began to slightly panic.

"But wait!" said Hinata. "I think we should first try to identify the people in the prophecy."

"That's a good idea," said Sakura. The rest of the girls agreed.

"Ok," began Ino. "First off, the fellowship. There are four people." The girls thought for a bit.

"Well," said Sakura kicking into her brainiac mode. "Since fellowship means companionship, we should try to think of the people who have been our friends since we got here." They all looked around. "Besides ourselves." Sakura added.

"I did meet a friend in Geography, Shino Aburame." Hinata spoke up.

"That's one." Ino ticked off one on her fingers.

"Oh yeah! There's a guy I made friends with in science…Chouji Akimichi I think." Tenten said.

"Two…" Ino ticked off another.

"There's also Lee," added Sakura.

"Three…" Ino said. "And then there is also Kiba, which makes four. I think we have found our fellowship." The girls did not know whether to find this good or bad.

"Now there are the sentinels," said Hinata. "According to the prophecy, we have already met them." The girls knew just who it was implying.

"But…but…we only know three!" Sakura sputtered. "So…it may not really be fulfilled, right?"

"Wrong…" said Ino in horror. Everyone looked at her. "I met a guy too." Any other day, the girls would have squealed and clapped. But now, they were panicing.

"Hey guys! Why the long faces?" The girls looked up to see Kiba, followed by Lee, Shino and Chouji.

"Nothing!" the girls said in unison all too quickly. They plastered on smiles. Kiba gave them a funny look.

"Mind if we sit here?" he asked.

"Not at all!" said Ino as the she and her friends scoot over to make some room.

"Did," chomp. "You guys hear," chomp. "About Tsunade and," chomp. "Jiraya?" Chouji said as he lunched on a sandwich. They all shook their heads. "They're a," chomp. "couple!" All the girls laughed in shock.

"That must explain why she was so happy this morning," said Hinata. The girls were glad their minds were on something else. Well, that is until Shino, who says very little, said something.

"What were you girls discussing when we got here?" he asked them. The girls tried to look nonchalant.

"Ino was just telling us about a guy she met in her class today," said Sakura, choosing not to lie.

"Sakura!" Ino slapped Sakura's hand in embarrassment.

"You can tell us!" Kiba winked at Ino as he nudged her side.

"Who would we have to tell really," sighed Shino.

"Ok, I'll tell you." Ino gave in. "It was Shikamaru…" Ino immediately stopped mid-sentence when she saw a sight that instantly shattered her heart in one blow. "…Nara."

**Oooooh cliffhanger! Except not really! I'm not good with those awesome cliffhangers that make everyone want to slit the throats of the author until they update. Just after I upload this one, I will start the next chapter. I hope you like where the plot is going! R and R please!**


	8. Lunchtime Part Two: Prophecy Unleashed

**Now the moment a lot of you have been waiting for…and what most of you know is already going to happen. The answer the cliffhanger! Trumpets roar! Yeah…big whoop. I would have put the real title of this chapter in the chapter scrolly thing but I couldn't fit it all in. So I settled with the next most fitting name. I'll stop blabbing now. I hope you like!**

Chapter 8

Lunchtime Part Two: It's about to be a what? Girlfight!

Ino stopped dead in her words as she saw just about the most depressing scene she's ever encountered. Sasuke, Neji and Naruto walked into the cafeteria, with Shikamaru behind them. However, he was not alone. His arm was around none other than…you guessed it, Temari.

"Huh?" Sakura noticed her friend's eyes glazing over and loosing life and followed the direction of her gaze. "Oh," she said quietly and sympathetically. Her friends noticed too, and began to pat her on the pack. The boys were clueless. _Other commitments…_

"Huh? What's up?" Kiba asked as he finally noticed Ino's usually cheerful expression falling. Shino nudged Kiba and pointed to Shikamaru and Temari who were now cuddling. Or should I say, Temari was cuddling Shikamaru. Shikamaru looked pretty bored, but to Ino's dismay, was not exactly shrugging her off either. Kiba's face twisted.

"That Temari just makes me sick." Kiba shook his head. Chouji was pretty oblivious to his surroundings and proceeded to chomp his lunch. "This is totally unmanly for me to do, but…" Kiba sighed, got up and gave Ino a hug. This shocked everyone.

"Sorry about that." Kiba sat back down.

"No, thank you," said Ino softly, smiling at him. He smiled back. Even though the hug helped, Ino still felt the clenching pain in her heart, as well as her ankle.

"Come on," Sakura lifted Ino out of her seat. The rest of the girls all got up too.

"We need some girl time," Tenten told the boys as they walked with Ino to the girls bathroom. The boys shared a look.

"Girl time," sighed Shino. "Best not to go into it." Kiba agreed and they returned to their eating.

"So that was him, huh?" Tenten leaned against the sink as Ino splashed some water on her blotchy face.

"Yeah," Ino choked. She was red and her eyes were glassy, but she never cried.

"I'm sorry, Ino," Hinata said.

"I know I shouldn't be this over the top about something as dumb as him having a girlfriend…but I just felt like we connected you know?" Ino slid down the wall to a seated position. Her friends did the same.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Tenten said. "That's sort of how I felt with Neji."

"And Naruto," added Hinata, regarding the sensation in her hand that Naruto had touched.

"And Sasuke." Sakura nodded. "But they didn't have girlfriends." She reminded her friends. Ino went on.

"He also helped me a lot." She said with more clarity. "There were two times where I was in trouble and he was always there to stop it. Almost like…"

"A sentinel?" suggested Tenten. Ino nodded as she hugged her knees to her chest.

"And her of all people!" she groaned. "It was Temari. The name just sends chills down my spine." She wiped her growing tears on her forearm. He friends comforted her more until she was completely composed. Together, they left the bathroom.

Unfortunately, something just has to kill the mood. As Ino, while looking at the ground, walked to her table, she saw a pair of feet intercepting her passage. She looked up and scanned the figure. Who knew? Temari.

"So, little miss _Ino,_" Temari took a step toward Ino. Ino took a step back, and her friends came to a halt. They put their hands on their hips.

"Why can't you just leave her be?" Sakura said in Ino's defense. Temari shifted her eyes to Sakura.

"This doesn't concern you, pinky," she said as she pushed Sakura out of the way. Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Lee stand up. She motioned him back down though.

"Anyways," Temari turned her attention back to Ino. "I heard from my brother that you were doing a bit of scamming on my boyfriend earlier today." Ino raised an eyebrow.

"Brother?" she asked as she folded her arms.

"Yes, brother. Kankuro." Temari said. Ino's jaw dropped. _Kankuro?_ The same guy who had flirted with her and cornered her in a hallway and nearly sexually harassed her? He was this girl's _brother? _"Wipe that look off your face!"

"What makes you think I was scamming?" Ino retorted. Before she knew it, she felt a burning pain against her cheek. Temari had slapped her with much force. At this point, the girls had drawn the attention of everyone in their vicinity.

"Don't play dumb," Temari patted the cheek of Ino, who was still in shock. "I can tell when Shika has had an over friendly encounter. Especially when she's _all he talks about_ between bells." Temari said the last sentence with a sneer. Ino slightly glowed more. _He had talked about me?_

"We just talked is all!" Ino sputtered, though she was secretly hoping that was not all. Temari grabbed Ino's collar.

"That's was they all say," she hissed.

"Before what?" Ino croaked.

"Before I fight them." Temari whispered back, a twisted grin growing on her face. Ino glowered. _This is obviously one of those over-protective girlfriends…Shika, you gotta break this one off!_

"So a fight is what you want?" Ino growled. "Over him?"

"Well that and," Temari slammed Ino to the wall and a collective gasp rippled amongst their audience (no teachers in this caf). "Let's just say you have gotten on my nerves from the minute I laid eyes on you." Ino rubbed the back of her neck and checked her hand. _Blood…_her ankle began to burn. _No way…_

Before Ino's thoughts could press on, she felt a punch to her other cheek and she flew into another table. The people sitting there scurried away in horror, not wanting to get involved.

Shikamaru, who was watching this whole thing, began to ponder his feelings for Temari. _Why did I go out with her again? _His gaze shifted to Ino. _Ino, no. How could she do this to you? _He gripped a fist.

Ino was now bleeding down her neck, mouth and down her arm thanks to the rough impact of the table legs. It was nearly impossible to hold back her urge to cry. _You can't…not here...not now…not while he's watching. Survivors don't cry, survivors don't cry…_

As Ino thought this, her anger began to rapidly increase. She stood up as easily as if she were never wounded. This surprised Temari, but didn't faze her. She held her ground.

"Trying to play tough girl now, are you?" Temari chuckled. "Even more interesting. All the more embarrassment to add to your defeat." Temari's chuckling instantly ceased as Ino began to develop a flaming aura around her self. _I won't go through this. Not again._

"Guys!" Tenten cried, alarmed. "It's unleashing!" the other girls looked at Ino with fear. The seal on her ankle had turned a flaming red, and the lines branching out were growing longer and longer, as if trying to engulf her body.

Kiba noticed the change in the seal. _That mark…it wasn't a tattoo after all!_ He ran to Tenten, Sakura and Hinata. "You guys have got to get her out of here!"

Sakura looked at her friends. "He's right. We can't risk the peak of our secret being revealed." Her friends agreed. They all ran after the angry Ino who was then advancing on Temari slowly. Temari, who was now faltering, backed backwards.

"So I'm the one playing tough girl, huh?" Ino raised her arm in Temari's direction. It began to glow, as if mustering power to its core.

"Ino, please!" Hinata jumped on Ino's arm to restrain her. "This isn't you!"

"Ino, you have to stop!" Tenten pulled Ino back. Ino looked at them in anger.

"But-" it was just then she looked at the standing Shikamaru. His face was filled with worry of Ino's state, and she instantly felt all the things he had felt in her heart when he first helped her once more. That was enough to calm her down. Her aura began to retreat, along with the lines of the seal. "I…I'm so sorry guys." She whispered before fainting in her friends' arms. They all shared a look of worry, and quickly carried Ino out of the caf while everyone was caught up in their discussions of what just happened.

Shikamaru ran to where Ino had been. "Ino!" he called out. Naruto, Neji and Sasuke began to run to the door of which the girls had exited through. Shikamaru was about to follow them when Temari emerged from behind him.

"Why are you so worried about that psychopath?" she asked as she walked up to him. He furiously turned to face her.

"It was all your fault." He said to her in unspeakable anger. Temari's eyes widened in surprise.

"I can't believe this," she laughed incredulously. "You're siding…with _her?_" she asked.

"At least she has a heart," he growled at Temari. She scoffed.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she crossed her arms over her chest.

Shikamaru pulled a class ring off his finger (AN: I dunno why he has a ring, but it adds to the effect) and threw it at her feet. With only two words, prophecy unraveled. "We're over."

**Climax! astrx:strokes chin:astrix. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter! It took some time, but I'm glad I got it done before my homework hurricane hit. Hopefully alot more things are made clear, but much more will be when I get into the next chapters. Thanks for reading guys and thanks for your past reviews : ) **


	9. Author note: Sorry!

**Hey guys. I'm so sorry, but due to some recent health issues it may take a day or two for my next chapter to be put up. On top of my health issues, there is also homework and sports, but don't worry, I won't stop writing. I'll just be writing at a slower pace. I just need some time to…reflect. Again, I'm sorry! Keep reading! I swear there will be at least one up by the end of the week.**


	10. Discovered: Pasts Unveiled

**Hey everyone! Sorry about the delay! Btw, just wanted to send a quick shout out to RockLeeLover, thank you for caring (again!)! And thanks to everyone who reviewed…I have not failed you guys. If the last chapters did not clear much up, this one definitely will. Thanks!**

Chapter 9

Discovered: Pasts Unveiled

Sakura, Tenten and Hinata heaved Ino's limp body to the alleyway separating the school and the cafeteria. The alleyway was quite hidden, and few people dared to venture into it in fear of bug or snake encounters. At this point however, the girls could care less about snakes or bugs.

They set Ino atop the dumpster (the lid was down) so the dirt on the ground would not infect her wounds too much. Sakura dampened her handkerchief and used it to dab the blood off Ino's face.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later. There is no denying it." Tenten said as she put her face in her hands.

"It just happened at a bad time…" Hinata looked at the unconscious Ino. "A very bad time. I think it's safe to say our cover is pretty much blown." When Sakura finished cleansing Ino's facial wounds, she daintily folded up her handkerchief.

"It wasn't Ino's fault," she claimed, almost in tears at her friend's state. "Temari is the one who pushed her to her limit. Temari is…" Sakura's eyes widened.

"Is what?" Hinata asked eagerly, feeling the tension radiating off Sakura.

"The enemy." Sakura said, as if she had never heard the word before.

"Well, we know that don't we?" Tenten said in an obvious tone. "I mean look at Ino…"

"No," Sakura interrupted. "I mean the enemy from the prophecy. Remember? _An encounter with the enemy proves to feel necessary, but of no use…"_ Sakura quoted the prophecy.

"And with only two words said, all Hell will break loose." The girls immediately froze when they heard a voice speak this from behind them. A voice that was certainly not feminine. It actually sounded more like…

"Sasuke?" Sakura exclaimed in shock. Behind Sasuke were Neji, Naruto and a distressed Shikamaru.

"How…" Tenten began, but was just as shocked as Sakura.

"How do we know the prophecy?" Neji finished for her. Tenten nodded with wide eyes. "Let's just say, there are some things about us you do not know."

"I'll say…" Sakura said.

"Mind explaining?" Hinata asked, putting her hands on her hips (so not Hinata-like!).

"You first!" Naruto budged in with his usual energy filled voice, his arms folded.

"Us? We asked you first!" Sakura spat back. As all the bickering went back and forth, Shikamaru walked over to Ino. He put his hand over her cold pale one.

"Ino…" He squeezed it. "I had no idea…" Shikamaru never cried. It was against his man code. He would never cry, especially not in front of women. But now, he could just feel his tears being tugged out, him powerless to stop it. A single tear drop fell from one of his dark brown eyes, and landed with a small splash on Ino's cheek. He gasped as he saw this happen, as if he had never seen his own tears before. With one last withering look at Ino, he slowly released her hand and walked away.

"Ok, fine." Tenten said, putting her hands up. "Enough! We will tell you our story, but you also have to spill yours. Deal?" She looked at the boys, pointedly. They all nodded, which was taken as a yes. Sakura took in a large breath, getting ready to let loose a lot of words. Just as she was about to begin, there was a faint stir heard from the dumpster top.

"Unh…ergh…hm?" was the next thing they heard. Just after, Ino had rolled on her side and began to sit up, painfully at that, but still sitting up. "What did I miss?"

"Ino!" Her friends scurried over to where their friend had awakened.

"You're ok!" Hinata squealed happily. Ino just then had grunted and clutched the pain in her neck.

"I wouldn't go that far…" she glanced at her blood. "But all that matters is that I'm alive." Shikamaru was hidden behind his friends. He instantly glowed and felt like crying again, only this time from happiness. It wasn't until a few seconds later did she notice him. _Shikamaru…_

"I cleaned the blood off your face so you wouldn't wake up to that stiff feeling in your face when blood dries over it," said Sakura while holding up the bloody handkerchief for proof. With a resounding 'ew' everyone took a step back from it. Neji and Sasuke just went 'hn' and closed their eyes.

"Thanks Sakura," Ino said softly, thinking about her fight with Temari. "But I woke up when this salty taste just sorta came to the tip of my tongue." She shuddered at the thought of not knowing what the taste was. Shikamaru froze up.

"It was probably just sweat," said Hinata. Shikamaru was relieved. Ino nodded.

"Yeah, probably. So, what were you guys talking about while I was er, out?" she asked while scratching her head as if she had not just had a tremendous power burst only twenty minutes ago.

"Your friends were just about to explain to us this past you keep hidden." Neji stepped forward. He looked at Tenten. "Right?" he asked her.

"Sure," she growled. Neji smirked at this reaction. "Where to begin…" she thought aloud.

"It all started when we were six," began Hinata. "First, I will tell you what this place tried to convince people it was. If we were asked about it, we were to say we went to an all girls school in the rain village with a principal named Rin."

"Yeah, and…" Naruto said impatiently. Sasuke hit him on the head.

"What it really was, was a recruiting organization off the maps that took girls from their homes and would teach them very powerful techniques and train them to be, well, evil." Sakura said. "Led by an evil woman named Rin," she added.

"Then wouldn't that make you…?" Shikamaru asked in an anxious voice.

"Huh? Oh, no!" said Sakura reassuringly. "We didn't let that happen. We'll tell you why now." She nodded at Ino to take it away.

"So one day," began Ino, hopping off the dumpster. She limped a little, but stayed on her feet. "We began having strange outbursts of power. We have no idea why, but in class or in the hall we would just go crazy and attack teachers or students."

"Sakura created a tornado in her study hall once," said Tenten simply, as if people formed tornadoes in their study halls everyday.

"And Ino set her homework on fire with her mind," added Hinata.

"Hinata unconsciously flooded the girls bathroom," said Sakura.

"And Tenten made an earthquake during lunch," finished Ino. The boys were pretty engaged. _Who would have thought_, thought Sasuke, glancing at Sakura. _A girl who isn't lovesick and weak…_

"So what's the deal with this Rin character?" asked Neji, squinting his eyes. The girls all bit their lips.

"Well, that's where it gets kind of complicated," explained Tenten slowly. "As our little 'power impulses' increased, Rin began to grow suspicious." The boys became even more interested.

"One day, she took us away from our classes and into this odd place…it's very hard to explain…but we know it wasn't school." Hinata said, shivering at her memory. "She can teleport herself and other people to wherever she pleases, so we could have been on the other side of the world for all we knew. All we know is that it was cold, dark and morose."

"She began to lecture each of us on this fate we had, and that it was inevitable." Ino fixed her eyes straight ahead as she recalled the moment. "It was almost as if she was trying to avoid a larger fate…a fate that could have destroyed her." The boy's eyes widened.

"If that was the case, she made sure it would not happen," said Sakura tossing a pebble from one hand to the other. "That is when she put these marks on us," they turned their ankles toward the boys to show their marks, which to their surprise, had grown larger. The lines branching out had grown at least a centimeter longer. "They were seals to bottle up our powers, so the fate she was fearing would not occur. When broken, as Ino's did, they grow nearly uncontrollable and our powers reach an all time high (AN: I know, like Sasuke's curse mark, but this is a story people)." The boys looked at their marks. _So that's it._ Neji looked at Tenten's specific mark. _I knew it. It is her._

"They will flare up when our fate is close to unfolding." Hinata pointed to the edges of her seal, where the skin had turned red from the blistering pain it had endured. Naruto nearly gasped when he saw it. _Wow,_ he thought. _Hinata sure is tough! Could have fooled me. That's really cool._

The boys were now fully engaged and had all climbed upon the dumpster to sit while they listened to the girls past.

"Of course, we attempted fleeing," Ino said, as she leaned against the brick wall. "But it was odd when she acted as if it didn't bother her. All she did was set us off with a part of the prophecy, and let us go." She swung her leg back and forth. "She seemed pretty confident our fates would find us no matter where we hid. And apparently she was right." She glanced down at her mark and sighed. The guys nodded.

"We decided to come to Konoha, since we once had family here. Sakura's house was still left, so we decided to live there." Tenten said, sitting against the wall. "That is, until we found that the prophecy began relating to every event that happened here so far. All in one day too." She bit at her nails. "And now we're here in a dirty alleyway, our fates completely open and with a bunch of guys who could help us further understand what the hell is going on."

"Wow," said Naruto, his chin supported on his hand. "That's rough." He hopped down. "But…"

"We can beat that," said Shikamaru, folding his arms. The girls raised their eyebrows.

"Well, you seem quite interested in everything we just told you." Ino stepped up, with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, we are interested," said Neji. "But maybe if we told you our story now, we could link some things together." The girls looked at one another, shrugged, and then they sat on top of the dumpster this time (lid still closed!).

"We started out in a similar situation as yours," began Neji. "But we were within the fire country."

"We went to a normal school, normal people…except this one teacher, Kiroku (I have no idea what that means! I just made it that because it sounded right.). He was supposedly from the Sound Village." Naruto added as he paced back and forth.

"He had an annoyingly close watch on us and our techniques," broke in Sasuke. "Until one day- like you- he pulled us aside. However, you tried to break free from your situation. This man was the one sending _us_ away. However, not before he gave us these." All at once, all the boys tore open their shirts. The girls were taken by surprise, and their eyes widened. They all were in awe of their crush's fine abs and pecks, not even realizing that they were gawking.

"Ahem," Shikamaru cleared his throat to get the attention of the girls. With much effort, they pulled their gazes away from the boys finely chiseled abs and looked to the most focal point of them. In their upper left chests, seemingly just over their hearts, they too had seals. Neji's was identical to Tenten's, Sasuke's to Sakura's, Shikamaru's to Ino's and Naruto's to Hinata's. The girls immediately gasped.

"Unreal…" Tenten, without thinking, put her hand on Neji's mark. Neji slightly jumped at this unexpected action, but let her do it. That is, until she realized what she was doing and pulled away with a red face.

Ino looked from her mark to Shikamaru's. "No way," she said stepping closer.

He stepped closer to. "It's troublesome, but way." They stood looking at each other for a split second before quickly looking away.

"I had a feeling you knew something about me that you couldn't learn from that questionnaire." Sakura stood next to Sasuke. For just about the first time in his life, he turned to look at Sakura.

"I didn't…I could just…" Sasuke realized he wasn't acting like himself at all. The great Sasuke Uchiha never showed signs of remote passion or care. But this time, this person…was different. "Feel it." He finished bashfully, turning away from Sakura again. Sakura did not care this time. She liked what she heard.

Hinata had still been staring wide-eyed at Naruto's seal. Naruto waved a hand in front of her face.

"Fire Country to Hinata?" Naruto waved his hand again. Hinata snapped out of it.

"S-s-sorry Naruto," she stuttered. "I g-guess I'm j-just…surprised. I-is all." Naruto stepped closer to her, but she did not notice.

"I know, me too," he said. They stood looking at their feet until Naruto broke the silence. "By the way, Hinata?" he asked. Hinata looked up.

"Yes, N-naruto?"

"You don't need to stutter around me anymore." He smiled warmly. Hinata smiled gratefully back.

"Thank you…Naruto." She said quietly.

Once everyone had finished with their moments, Ino spoke up.

"But this still doesn't explain why you know the prophecy," she reminded them.

"Oh yes," answered Shikamaru. "Like you, Kiroku left us with that first part too. He claimed we were 'in no need of the rest'." Everyone took up suspicious looks.

"That's exactly what Rin told us." Hinata quietly said.

"So, according to prophecy, our fates are obviously linked. But…what about the last part of the prophecy?" Tenten questioned the guys. They all looked at Shikamaru.

"Yeah…" Shikamaru began in a faltering voice. "I broke up with Temari." He confessed. The boys nodded in a 'that's the sad truth' way. Ino had obviously brightened up. _Did he really?_

"Yeah, that's great and all, but we have other issues at hand." Sakura said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, it's how I said it." Shikamaru said a bit louder. This caught the girl's attention. "I said 'we're over'…two…words." He said hesitantly, squinting his eyes. A collection gasp ran through the girls. Their worst of nightmares had come true.

"So…it's really happened now." Ino said quietly, gripping her fist.

"Yeah…" Sakura looked at the ground. "I just wish we knew what exactly it is."

"Perhaps, I can help you there." A voice came from down the alleyway. The girls and guys all turned and were more surprised than ever to see whom they saw.

**Again, one of my trademark horrible cliffhangers, but they are just ever so fun. Not really. It just gives me a head for the next chapter. For all of you who think this is too focused on ShikaIno at the moment (I tend to get carried away with them, they are like my favorite pair), not to worry! There will be more romance between the other pairs too, but still lots of action. I hope many questions (besides the cliffhanger) are answered, please keep reading! R and R, thanks!**


	11. Discovered: History is Repeating Itself!

**Ok, I have to get this chappie up before I have to go to this labor day party tomorrow. I always write my best during the morning or during the night for some odd reason, never in between. It just won't work that way. Thanks for your reviews guys! I'm gonna time myself for the first time on this. It's currently 10:00…and…I'm off! types vigorously **

Chapter 10

Discovered: History is repeating itself!

All heads turned towards the source of the voice. At seeing whom this was, Sakura's eyes immediately widened.

"Ak-Akio?" she exclaimed, jaw dropped open. Out of the dark alleyway came Akio, followed be Kiba, Lee, Shino and Chouji.

"That is correct, Miss Haruno," Akio greeted. "I was wondering when this would finally happen. We have been waiting quite some time." The girls as well as the guys were dumbfounded.

"We…you guys too?" Ino pointed at the boys behind Akio. They smirked and nodded.

"I had my suspicions when I first saw your 'tattoo'," Akio began to walk back and forth as the boys behind him took to leaning against the wall. Well, Chouji sat down, pulled out a bag of chips and took to his chowing down. "So I consulted Kiba here, who then informed me that you all held tattoos." He gestured towards Kiba, who nodded. All the girls looked at Kiba. He gave them a look that told them this would all be explained momentarily. "It was then that I grew very skeptical. When I found the state of the cafeteria, I knew right away it was true. It has in fact happened." Akio closed his eyes and nodded. The girls were still confused.

"Yeah we have established this," began Tenten. "But you said you could tell us what 'it' is…" Akio awoke from his apparent daydream.

"Oh yes," he suddenly took up a stern expression. "All of this must be explained to you right away, now that prophecy is fulfilled…or at least the significant portion." The girls groaned in their heads. They had had their share of confusing events for one day, and now this was happening.

"Well, it looks like something fairly 'significant' happened here too…" Kiba said seductively as he raised an eyebrow. He looked from the boys to the girls.

"Huh…?" the guys all looked down at their torn open shirts. They all immediately flushed crimson.

"Oh, um…hehe…it's like this…" Naruto scratched the back of his head as he tried to conjure up an excuse.

"Kidding dude, I know," Kiba chuckled as he patted Naruto on the shoulder. The boys sighed in relief.

"You mean…you know about our marks?" Shikamaru asked befuddled.

"We've known about all of the marks for a very long time." Shino said quietly as he stepped forth. "We just didn't know to whom they belonged until you all came to this school." The guys and girls shared a look as they questioned each other.

"But you said you were here for years!" Ino told Shikamaru, recalling the moment when he helped her fend off the hair pulling idiots.

"I lied." Shikamaru shrugged simply. "Isn't that what we all have been doing from the moment we met?" at this, everyone looked at the ground. They all knew he was right.

"Looks like we all learned something new about one another today," broke in Akio. "Tell you what, before I go into 'it', why don't we all introduce ourselves for real this time," he said looked at everyone. "_For real,_" he emphasized. They all knew very well what he meant.

"As troublesome as it is, I will go first," sighed Shikamaru. "I am Shikamaru Nara, I am a Sentinel of the prophecy and I hold the seal of The Flame." Everyone nodded, and so the chain reaction went on. Neji came forward.

"I am Neji Hyuuga, also a Sentinel of the prophecy and I hold the seal of The Earth." Tenten lifted her head and looked at his seal again. She smiled.

"I am Naruto Uzamaki!" Naruto leapt forward and pumped his fist into the air. "As a Sentinel of the prophecy, I bare…" He did a back flip. "THE SEAL OF THE WATER! (AN: don't ask why I gave Naruto water of all things, I honestly don't know)" After a slightly prolonged silence following Naruto's little presentation, Sasuke made a noise.

"Hn. Sasuke Uchiha. Sentinel. Holder of the seal of The Wind." He was quite direct. He remained still and eyes closed. With a slight nod, Sakura continued the chain.

"I am Sakura Haruno and I am a Chosen One of the prophecy. I too bare the seal of The Wind," Sakura said as she bowed her head to all of them. They nodded.

"I am Ino Yamanaka, also a Chosen One," Ino continued. "Like Shikamaru, I am a holder of the seal of The Flame." Shikamaru smirked as he looked up at her. _That sure wasn't hard to figure out after the little lunchtime incident._

"Tenten!" Tenten chirped, twirling a random kunai in her two fingers, which basically explained a whole part of her persona. "I am a Chosen One of the prophecy, holder of the seal of The Earth," she proudly stated as she tucked the kunai in her pouch. It was now Hinata's turn.

"I am Hinata Hyuuga." Hinata said to the floor quietly, afraid to meet anyone's eye, Neji's in particular. "I am a Chosen One like my friends, and hold the seal of The Water."

"Wait a second…" Naruto looked from Hinata to Neji. "I should have seen it before!" he pointed at both of them, pointedly at their crystal clear eyes. "YOU TWO ARE RELATED!" Naruto shouted clearly, as if ensuring that the statement would reach the heavens. There was a pause.

"No duh, Naruto," Sasuke punched Naruto in the arm. Everyone sweat dropped anime-style.

"So, still alive are you Hinata?" Neji leaned against the alleyway wall. Hinata finally got up the courage to meet his eyes.

"Yes…alive and well my cousin. I am glad to see that you are the same." She bowed her head politely. He nodded back.

"Too bad we're the only ones left." Neji closed his eyes and looked down. Hinata did the same.

"Yes…" Hinata whispered. "It is a shame." Everyone was quite bewildered by this small interaction, but the chain of introduction was not yet finished.

"As you all know, I am Kiba Inuzuka!" Kiba said happily, hitching a thumb towards himself. "I'm a member of The Fellowship, and possess no seal whatsoever!" Everyone smiled. Kiba always had a way of lightening the mood.

"I am Rock Lee!" Lee stepped forward, striking the nice guy pose. He looked at Sakura. "I too am part of the prophecy's Fellowship, and hold no seal." He winked. As slightly creeped as she was, Sakura smiled back.

"Shino Aburame. Ditto."

"Chouji Akimichi…chomp chomp chomp…Fellowship…chomp chomp chomp…no seal…chomp" Though Chouji was chewing messily, some chips falling from his mouth as he spoke, his speech was still readable and the people in the alleyway all nodded. After the introductions of the teenagers were made, everyone looked at Akio.

"Right…and I am Akio. Algebra teacher to Konoha High, the Chief Informer to the prophecy." He held open his arms in a grand manner. All the teens, excluding the fellowship were surprised to hear this.

"But how come you were not in the prophecy?" Tenten asked him. Akio looked at her.

"You have not failed to mention to these boys that you only received a mere half of the prophecy, have you?" he asked Tenten, stroking his chin. Tenten shook her head. "Then I will have you know now that the Chief Informer is only mentioned in the second half. The half you boys and girls never received. The half I have right here." Akio then reached into his pocket and revealed a parchment scroll that looked like it had been carelessly torn from another half. A gasp was taken in at the sight.

"Wait a minute…" Sasuke stepped in. "So if Kiroku and Rin only gave us the first half, then that means…there was something in the second half they did not want us to know about?"

"Well decrypted Mr. Uchiha," Akio said, smiling. "I see you have not been completely inattentive during my morning brain teasers. And yes, your former masters did not want you kids having knowledge of your true fates, or me, which is why they only gave you one half of the prophecy. They most likely felt if you did not know the second half, you would not attempt pursuing it." Sakura, who had been pacing back and forth as she listened, stopped.

"Well, now that we have a hold of the rest of it, may you read it to us do we can find out what our true destiny is…and what the heck this day has been all about?" Sakura asked, taking care of the question that had been looming in the backs of all of their minds ever since bell one.

Akio smiled, as if he had been waiting for the day he would finally get to do this. "Of course," he said, as he unrolled the prophecy. He cleared his throat and began to read.

"_As new identities are discovered,_

_The next book is removed from the shelf_

_And after some things are made clear_

_The Chief Informer reveals himself._

_He then explains their futures_

_Or rather, their pasts,_

_But even when they believe they are safe_

_The security never lasts_

_The enemies are at work_

_Striking when least expected_

_And just when the pieces come together_

_Our heroes are detected_

_The three forces work together_

_Battling with strength and tact_

_Though a loss is made_

_They then discover a fact_

_The forces think of their destinies_

_And what it is they must do_

_As reincarnates of previous saviors_

_The Chosen Ones become true"_

The teens took a moment to think on what they just heard.

Tenten bit her thumbnail. _Just when they think they are safe…the security never lasts? Striking when least expected…_She looked around. She slipped her hand into her weapon pouch, poised to grab a kunai if any unwanted visitors were to drop in. She wasn't about to give up, not after everything they had discovered.

Sakura bit her lip. _Our heroes are detected? _She looked at her friends and newfound friends. She could not imagine if she lost any of them, even Akio. After today, she realized they all had too much to live for to die just yet.

Ino braided a strand of her hair, a habit she always took to when she was deep in thought or worry. The complex weaving that seemed to go on and on, never achieving perfection. It reminded her a lot of her own life. _The three forces work together, battling with strength and tact. _Ino feared this particular quote. The only time she or her friends could achieve strength or tact was when they broke the power of their seals, which was highly dangerous. But then…was that what the prophecy wanted them to do? Rin would have sealed them for that purpose alone, and Rin's version of their fate and the prophecy's version of their fate were two very different things. Ino continued to ponder this thought.

Hinata began to shudder. She could feel herself go weak at her knees. She never expected to have to take on such a challenge as the prophecy was stating she would. _Though a loss is made, they then discover a fact._ Hinata did not want to loose anyone. She did not want to see anyone die again. She did not want to see her loved ones get wiped out as half her clan was by…well, half her clan. She could not bear to go through that sorrow again. Whatever this fact was, she did not care. All she could think about was her friends.

As cheesy as it is, the girls could sense the worry radiating off each other, as they had known each other so long they could feel one another's feelings. They all looked at one another. Just those looks told each of them that no matter what happened, they would face it together. Life or death, they'd go together (AN: Chang chang! Changity-chang she-bop! We'll always be together, wah-ooooh YEAH! Sorry…had to add that little _Grease_ relation. Sorry that I ruined the mood.)

The same part of the prophecy echoed off in all of their heads at once. _The forces think of their destinies, and what they must do. As reincarnates of saviors, the Chosen Ones become true. _

Akio had noticed the worry gliding along the faces of everyone, including the boy's, who's minds had gone almost blank. They were taken so off guard that they had no clue how to react, not even Naruto.

"Allow me to clear this up for you guys," Akio said lightly, respecting how they were probably taking it. He preferred to lay it on gently. "Before you guys…there were others." This very well did not clear things up for them, and Akio could see this in their facial expressions. "By that I mean you knew each other before. In a previous life." They all yanked their heads up.

"That would explain why we all felt like we knew one another…though we had never met?" Naruto asked. Akio nodded.

"That is correct. You see you are all reincarnates of the previous forces. In terms of you girls," Akio looked at the girls. "You are reincarnates of the saviors Inoa, Sakaria, Tensha and Hinalia." The girls all looked at each other. They could each immediately tell who they were based on the similarity of the names. As the girls let this soak in, Akio moved onto the boys. "And you boys, the sentinels, are reincarnates of the fine protectors Shikaru, Sasuraku, Nejero and Naratu." The boys cringed at their previous names, but were still just a surprised as the girls were. They were speechless.

"And…and what about your names?" Hinata pointed at the fellowship. Kiba widened his eyes.

"Oh, us?" he shrugged. "Ours are the same."

"WHAT?" the Chosen Ones and Sentinels chorused. The boys of the fellowship covered their ears.

"Please do not shout!" Lee said over the noise. "It is not like we wrote the prophecy! It is just how it unraveled! If we expect to get through this, we must try to cooperate!" At Lee's words, everyone instantly calmed down, seeing as it was stupid to go crazy over such a little thing.

"We won't have to worry about these guys!" Kiba winked and gestured towards the other group of guys and girls. "Looks like they have cooperated quite a lot already." They all blushed and shoved Kiba, as he chuckled. He almost loved how easy it was to set them off. He hoped it would come in help in battle.

"Guys!" Akio shouted to them. They had almost forgotten that he was not finished explaining to them the prophecy. "We're not done here!" They all sighed and gathered around him again.

"Well you see, the previous saviors fought against the enemies of the prophecy some hundred years ago," he explained to them. "They could not seal evil completely, as it's powers were far too wicked and powerful, but managed to seal it for a matter of time…and at the expense of their lives. However, they had been prepared for such a situation and had created a prophecy. Before their ends, they declared that in a century or so, they would be reborn, and their younger, fresher reincarnations would surely finish the enemies once and for all. Unfortunately, no short cut goes unpunished…if they were to reincarnate themselves through the prophecy, they would also have to reincarnate the enemies. Regardless of the precautions, they did so, confident that them, with the help of their friends reincarnations, would fulfill the destiny they had long since left behind. And so here we are now." Akio finished, as if speaking all in one breath. Like many times that day, the teens fell into silent confusion, this time even the fellowship.

"So you mean to say…history is repeating itself?" asked Sakura in a quivering voice.

"Exactly," nodded Akio. "And it is up to us to stop it in its tracks."

**It's…finally…up! This took me till one in the morning to finish! I'm so serious, right now, the clock says 1:00 AM. Weird, it didn't feel like three hours. You guys better review this! Eek…I guess I'm just cranky, I'm sorry! That chapter took much thinking. I'm SO sorry there wasn't any romance in this chapter, but I had to finish up the destiny stuff before I could fit that in. Don't worry. I will not leave romance in the dust! I cannot stand single-genre stories, and romance/action had always kept my blood going so I hope the same thing would work for this story. I really hope you guys like it so far!**


	12. Back to Where We Started: Unexpected

**Hey! Sorry…I haven't much to say right now…except for the fact that Steve Irwin, AKA Croc hunter died! That sucks. He was cool. Sorry, randomness is my specialty. ANYHOO, read up, hope you like it so far!**

Chapter 11

(Un)expected Visitors

"Stop it in its tracks?" Neji growled. "How do you suggest we do that?" Everyone nodded and looked to Akio.

"Simple," he said dangerously as he smirked. "You're going to break your seals." The teens choked up on this question.

"But…" began Hinata. "That's far too dangerous and difficult! We could kill eachother!" she protested, clutching her heart in fear of what Akio was asking them to do. Akio closed his eyes and sat on the dumpster.

"Hinata's right!" Sakura agreed with a serious nod. "Did you see what Ino did in the cafeteria? And that was only the pre-phase!" Ino shuddered as Sakura mentioned this and looked down at her ankle. _How did I release it? _

Akio nodded. "Yes, I understand what you are saying. But I'm afraid it's the only way," he said. "Don't worry," he added. "The seal's bind easily breaks at the face of the enemy." They all gasped and looked at Ino.

"Then that means Sakura was right," Tenten said through her teeth. "Temari _is _the enemy from the prophecy." Akio looked at Tenten.

"Yes, I had my suspicions of that one ever since she arrived here. But I also might add, if you think she is your only enemy, you are sorely mistaken," Akio worriedly told them. Ino fell sideways into the wall, supporting herself with her for-arm. This was obviously a lot of news to take on all at once. "With much sadness, I must also add that the longer you wait, the more control your seals have over your powers." He pointed at their seals. The girls checked their ankles as the boys checked their chests. They took in a sharp breath. The lines had grown even longer since a half hour ago.

The lines of the girl's seals had branched out as far as their mid-calve. The boys had branched out as far as their collarbones and upper-stomach.

"Oh my God!" The girls exclaimed in unison.

"How…?" Sasuke put his hand over his mark and ran his fingers along the line's directions.

"I should have noticed…" Neji balled a fist, but let it loose.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed as he hit the wall, causing it to crack a bit.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru growled down, as if speaking to his mark.

"Exactly," said Akio hopping off the dumpster. "You must break those as soon as possible before those lines envelop your entire bodies. When they do…" They all looked at Akio in horror. "You will no longer be able to harness your power, and if that should happen, evil will prevail."

"Yes, it certainly will." Yet another unknown voice sounded, bringing chills down the spines of all in the alleyway. "But that would happen whether you could harness your little powers or not."

The voice seemed to be coming from up above. Those in the alleyway all looked up, and atop of the edge of the cafeteria's roof was none other than Temari, staring down at them defiantly as if they were ants she was about to squash.

"Is this supposed to be a surprise to us?" Sakura boldly stepped forward, shouting up to Temari. "Because if it is, we have known for a while already." Temari tweaked an eyebrow.

"Blabbering again, are we pinky?" Sakura cringed at the annoying nickname Temari had apparently stuck to her. "Well, if you must know," she pulled off the large fan that had rested upon her back, and with a swift swing of her arm, folded it out, creating a breeze in the process. "I have not come alone." Temari smirked after saying this, then hopped onto her over-sized fan, which then carried her down to where the teens were.

"…If that wasn't going to be used against us, that would be really tight," Kiba said regarding the fan. His friends shushed him.

"Not the time!" Shino hissed at Kiba.

"Looks like you're right about one thing…this definitely isn't your time." A second voice sounded. It sounded closest to Ino. She spun around, and she was almost frightened to see Kankuro there. _Where did he come from?_

"K-k-kankuro?" Ino stammered as she backed away from the smirking boy. He stepping closer, making Shikamaru twitch in anger.

"Yes, Ino." Kankuro said evilly. "It's a shame," he sighed. "We could have worked so well together." He took Ino's hand against her will and twirled her into his arms lovingly. "But it looks like I'm going to have to kill you and your friends now." His lovingly hold turned into a deadly headlock, then he threw Ino over his shoulder. Her eyes widened to see that he no longer had his crow on his back. Instinctively, Ino's friends ran at Kankuro, only to be halted by a large puppet armed with venomous needles. Kankuro controlled it with the hand that wasn't holding Ino's legs.

"Don't think about it," he said as he manipulated the strings to raise the puppets needles even higher in a threatening manner. Sakura was far from doing what he said.

"So you're only in it to get back at Ino for not going out with you? How pathetic!" She blurted at Kankuro. Kankuro turned slightly red at this half truthful statement, but was not about to let it slide. He twisted the strings of the puppet, and released one. A needle began to hurl its way in Sakura's direction. She gasped, but knew it was going too fast for her to escape safely. Instead, she stood and waited for her untimely death to come. She closed her eyes tight. _Why can't I ever keep my mouth shut?_

Sakura continued to close her eyes. Suddenly, she felt a force knock her to the ground, bringing itself with her. It was certainly not the needle. She opened her eyes to see Sasuke over her. She looked at the wall opposite. A needle was stuck in the hard brick, venom dripping down from the point. She looked at Sasuke's sleeve, which had a tear in it. A near miss. A _very _near miss.

"Sasuke…" Sakura's voice quivered as she looked at Sasuke. "Why?" Sasuke, who rarely blushed, turned a bit pink. He got off of her and sat on his knees.

"Well…it's just…because I-" Sasuke was cut off by Temari's gust of wind. With much force, he, along with the rest of The Sentinels, was blown into the brick wall, the same one where the needle had hit. Sasuke could feel the venom dripping onto his head from the needle only feet above. Sakura clamped her hand over her mouth. _No…Sasuke!_

"See, it's those touchy feely moments that _really_ set me off." Temari shut her fan. "And don't even think about helping your little boyfriend!" Temari scolded Tenten, whom was reaching out to Neji in a protective manner, about to attempt aiding him. Tenten hesitantly drew her hand back. Hinata bit her lip worriedly. _Naruto, please be ok!_

It was now that Akio stepped forward firmly.

"Ooh, what's this?" laughed Temari, as she put her fan back in it's place on her back. "The math teacher's going to fight me! Well this sure will be a laugh- AGH!" Temari was the one cut off now. Akio had punched Temari dead on in the face with little regret. She hurdled back into the dumpster, creating a rather large dent. To make things perfect, a leak of mystery stew poured on her head.

"Haven't done that in a few years…" Akio said to himself proudly, cradling his fist. The teens looked at him, shocked. They were certainly not expecting the cheerful happy Akio to use such force. They were glad it was in their favor.

Temari, clutching her bleeding nose, stumbled up. Her fan had opened as she was blown back and ripped on impact. "Urgh…Kankuro! Take care of these bitches!" She screeched at her brother. Kankuro nodded. With a swing of his hands, the puppet, which had not been silenced, gathered up the remaining teens in a tight bind, yet not tight enough to kill them.

"See Ino, I'm very good with my hands!" Kankuro said to the kicking Ino he still had on his shoulder.

"That was the worst pickup line I've ever heard!" Ino yelled as she began to hit his back. He turned pink again. _Damn! I really thought that one would work. _

"Dude!" Kiba shouted to him. "If you want a girl, don't use sucky pick up lines! It only enrages them!" Kankuro was getting angry. "Oh, and by the way, you're puppet is butt-ugly." Kiba added. Now Kankuro was ticked. He worked the strings once more and tightened the puppet's hold on the teens. They groaned.

"…Sorry about that." Kiba whispered.

"KANKURO!" Temari shrieked again, still stumbling around the dumpster holding her nose. "HURRY UP!" Kankuro was startled at his sister's outburst and quickly tended to his evil doing.

"Right…" he said as he tied up his strings, but still kept the teens bound up and the sentinels too weak from their impact to stand. Ino was still kicking. "Urgh…" Kankuro jammed his hand into his pocket and began to search through it. "Ah," he said as he took out a needle. He injected it's liquid into each of Ino's legs. Her fidgeting instantly stopped.

"What the…huh?" Ino tried as she might, but could not get her legs to budge.

"It's a temporary paralyzation serum," Kankuro told her. "It will keep you from moving about for a bit. Don't worry; it will wear off…once it's time. Same with that bind." Kankuro gestured his head to the puppet.

"What do you mean 'once it's time'?" Hinata, who had not been talking much due to fear, said.

"Well, looks like we'll have to show you," said Temari through her nose, on which she had put a tissue. "But let's take this to a place more…let's say…fitting."

"Fitting?" Chouji, who had been oblivious to what was happening, echoed.

"That's right." Kankuro smiled dangerously. With an assuring nod from Temari, he took out a device from his pocket. Temari did the same. With a press of the side buttons, a strong light that seemed to be visible in the day shined from the devices. The siblings held the lights above all in the alleyway, and they were immediately whisked out of it.

Sakura blinked as the wind began to sting her eyes. She could only see blurs going by, as if they were spinning through some portal to…somewhere else. She also thought about Sasuke. _He saved me…he could have died! But he still did it. _Sakura began to feel something in her stomach that seemed different for her. It felt like it was leaping. _No! _She thought to herself. _I can't possibly…but then again…could I?_

Tenten kept her eyes wide open. What ever they were going or what was going to happen to them, she was not about to miss it. She recalled a moment between her and Neji that took place seconds after Akio had given them the speech of their previous lives.

Tenten began to slightly shake at Akio's words. Tenten was always brave. She did not know why the concept of the prophecy scared her so.

_Suddenly, she felt something enter her hand. She looked down at it, and she saw a hand placing a kunai in her own. She looked to see that the hand belonged to Neji. She looked at his face, but he seemingly continued to look forward at Akio, as if nothing was taking place between him and Tenten. Tenten was confused, but closed her fingers over the kunai. After she did, Neji gently let go of it and his arm casually fell back to his side. _

"_So you mean to say…history is repeating itself?" Sakura asked in a shaky voice. At this, Tenten closed her eyes. Then she brought up her hand to look at the kunai Neji had given her. It was scratched up incredibly, as if it had been through a lot in the past. She turned it over. Inscribed on the handle was "N. Hyuuga". Tenten realized then that what he had given her had been his luckiest and trustiest of kunai. She gripped it tighter before storing it safely in her weapon pouch._

Tenten smiled slightly after remembering this. _Thank you…Neji._

Hinata was slightly squeaking as she held back tears. She did not want all this to happen so fast. She wanted to know what it was like to lead a normal life- not the life determined for her by the prophecy. But one of the most important at the moment to her was Naruto. Around him, she felt a sense of security, although she could not really work out why. She just felt like he wouldn't let any harm come to her as long as he was there, and she was happy for that. _Please be safe Naruto. Please…_

After numerous desperate attempts to budge her legs, Ino gave up. She hung hopelessly at Kankuro's back, her hair all in her face because of the wind, so she could not see her surroundings (or lack thereof). She did not fail to pinch or hit Kankuro in his back every so often, since her arms were in fine working order, but it earned her a smack in the butt. Yes, the butt. _Man, this guy's a perv! _Then Shikamaru came to her head. Shikamaru, Shikamaru, Shikamaru. She had no idea as to why she was thinking of Shikamaru of all things while she was being transported to where she would most likely be met face-to-face with her death, but she still thought of him. She thought of his face when she looked at him after her brawl with Temari in the cafeteria. The look of concern and worry he wore when Ino was being pestered by Kankuro. The defiant protective expression he had when he warded off the idiots from Ino's hair. So many moments she had shared with him in such a short amount of time clicked through her head like a slide show. _What are you doing Ino? You've only known him for one day for crying out loud! _She thought some more. _But then again…we have known each other in a past life…so…agh! Pay attention to the current problems, Ino! Like that hard cement you are hurdling towards this very second!_

All except for Kankuro and Temari, who had landed tactfully on their feet, hit the cold hard floor with a loud thump. They all whimpered. The fall alone was enough to make them woozy and delirious. The girls all looked up and around. The same thought flicked through all their minds at once. _This place…no way. We're here…again._

The guys and girls looked up to see a blurry feminine figure above them, arms crossed. The figure spoke to the girls.

"It's nice to see you girls…again." The familiar voice said. With those being the last words interpreted, the girls slipped into unconsciousness.

**Ok! Hey guys, sorry if that one was too goofy at some parts. Don't worry, I will make up for it. And sorry that Kankuro is in fact a bit of a perv. I know he's not really like that, but I had to create a character with that persona to fit the story. Now that I'm done with my normal clearing-up-what-was-confusing/offensive-to-readers is done, I will finish up with this little footnote thing. Hope you liked this chappie, the next one MAY be a little delayed due to homework onslaughts, but I dunno yet. So if it takes a while, don't worry. I'm done blabbering now, so I hope you enjoy it so far, R and R! (hehe…rhyme…not really)**


	13. We'll Take Care of This

**Hey, I'm so sorry it took so long to update! I've had so much homework, it's just been getting so difficult to update as speedy as before, please forgive me! To make up for it, I plan for this chapter to be longer than normal. I hope you like it!**

Chapter 12

We'll Take Care of This

Sakura slowly parted her eyes. The first thing that came to her head was, _Agh, my back sure is hurting…did I fall out of bed last night? _In her wooziness, it took her another minute to realize what was really happening. When she did, she looked to either side of her frantically. Beside her were Ino and Hinata, and on Hinata's left was Tenten. They all had their heads hung as they slept. She looked around. Then she remembered.

"Oh God," Sakura quivered. "I can't believe…this place…we are…"

"We're back." Sakura heard the voice come quietly from the 'sleeping' girl beside her, Ino.

"Ino!" Sakura said cheerfully. "You're ok!" Ino, however, chose to keep her head hung. "Or…are you?"

"Shut up!" hissed Ino in a low, yet still angered tone. "We don't want them to know we're awake just yet." She slightly gestured her head towards the guards, guards more or less that is, seeing as they were too busy playing cards and looking at magazines to pay close attention to the girls.

Sakura got it. She hung her head and feigned sleep as best she could. "Are those two awake too?" she asked Ino in a hushed tone, regarding Hinata and Tenten.

"Yeah," Ino whispered back. "But they want to play it safer than me, so they won't be talking for a bit." Sakura nodded slightly and looked a few meters away. She saw the guys tied to a pillar like them selves. They were most likely faking slumber as well. She looked a few meters forward and saw the fellowship doing the same. Though it was most likely Chouji had been asleep.

A silence followed, and all the girls soon got very tired of faking and their necks began to hurt. They kept their positions but started a silent conversation.

"Did you guys see what I saw before passing out?" Tenten slowly asked.

"Yes," the girls whispered back in unison.

"I guess we couldn't run from our past after all," sighed Hinata, barely audible since her normal voice was already very quiet.

"It's about time you realized that." The girls yanked their heads up, and before them was Rin. Tall, dark robes, silver hair and all. Ino's eyes widened in horror. _How did she get there so fast?_

"But how…" Tenten stuttered. Rin laughed the same old icy laugh she had always laughed.

"Look above darlings," she said in a blatantly evil voice. The girls did so, and above them was a large morose looking gargoyle. It resembled a tortured soul. (AN: just imagine the freakiest gargoyle you can imagine!)

The girls remained silent. They were freaked by the gargoyle, but saw no significance. Rin was annoyed.

"And to think you were top students…" she gave a 'tut tut' sound and shook her head. "Let me make things clear for you- I have been hiding within that gargoyle from the moment I captured you." The girls all raised an eyebrow. "Why did I not kill you in the first place you girls are wondering, perhaps? Simple. Prophecy says otherwise, and I cannot interfere with prophecy…at the moment." As she said the last part, she cut the ropes that had bound the girls to the pillar, and they thrust forward. As they were examining their rope burns, Rin looked up at the gargoyle above the guys. She nodded up to it.

"Looks like you boys have been up to some tricky stuff too!" A voice boomed from the gargoyle, but no person was visible. The boys shot open their eyes, obviously having been faking sleep, and looked up and around. "And you boys over there! Yes, you too! You're not fooling anyone!" The fellowship bashfully opened their eyes. The voice was enough the wake Chouji up.

"I see that I have taught you well…" the voice echoed, directed towards the Sentinels. "If only you had listened to me and joined me. We could have been quite the force." The voice seemed to trail, as if the source was moving. The girls could hear it getting closer to them. Then, Rin bent down to the floor and put her hand down, as if she were letting something crawl onto it. To the teen's surprise, something actually did crawl onto it. It was a small centipede, resembling very much something that a few of them had seen before.

"…Ursula!" Shino exclaimed as he struggled to break from his ropes. Naruto and Hinata looked closely. It was in fact the 'dead' insect they had seen in Geography class earlier.

"Guess again," came the voice again. Rin then dabbed a liquid she had gotten from her sash belt onto the centipede's back, and let it back on the floor. She mumbled a few words, and a puff of smoke began to form around the centipede. There were a few small booms, and when the smoke began to lessen, the sentinels squinted to see through it while the girls and the fellowship coughed in the smoke that had accumulated in the atmosphere around them. The boys could barely make out the features, but as the smoke slowly ceased, they could make out the figure right away. It was Kiroku.

"Frick…we should have known those two were in this together," Neji whispered to himself.

"Ah, what's with the surprised faces boys?" Kiroku, shorter than Rin but more muscular, advanced on the boys with his arms folded over his chest. His hair was a dark shade of blue, much darker than Sasuke's, and his robes were long and black like Rin's. "I thought I gave you fair warning last time we were together…no matter how hard you try, I _will _find you, and," Kiroku did a fake gasp. "What do you know? I have!" He sarcastically held up his hands in excitement, before letting them fall to his sides. He then took on a serious face. "But now, there is no where to run."

"You got that right," Rin said seductively as she walked over to Kiroku and started to kiss him. The girls and boys recoiled.

"Egh…er…you guys are a couple?" Kiba sneered in a disgusted tone. Rin and Kiroku released.

"Indeed we are, foolish boy," Rin dropped her hand from Kiroku's cheek and winked at him. "But let's not change the subject now, shall we?" She cut the guys loose while Kiroku cut the fellowship loose, and they immediately got to their feet. Kiba glared. _Me change the subject? I wasn't the one who started making out with someone in the middle of a death speech! _

After all the teens were standing and poised, twisted smiles grew on Kiroku and Rin's faces.

"Now…" Rin began. "Our part of the prophecy can begin." With a snap of her fingers, which were surprisingly manicured, many dark ninjas in black robes, Kankuro and Temari included, came into the large room. (AN: The room is about the size of a football field.)

"Your part?" sputtered Ino, sweating at the sight of the experienced-looking ninjas. "What do you mean 'your part'?" Rin turned to Ino and gave her the usual evil smirk Ino had seen so many times. Ino had known Rin long enough to be able to interpret her many smirks and smiles, so she knew this one was not good.

"Perhaps you never knew…" Kiroku answered, as he dug through his pocket and revealed a charcoal scroll. He unraveled it, and it had silvery writing on it. "The dark also made a prophecy. Same people. Different outcome." He narrowed his eyes into devilish slits. "_Very _different outcome."

"Let me guess, bad prevails, and we die?" Shikamaru asked, pretending to be in deep thought. Kiroku was annoyed.

"Well…yes. But as for that sarcasm, Nara, you can drop it. Because in a matter of minutes, you will not be so carefree," threatened Kiroku.

"Is that so?" Asked Neji, a bored expression on his face.

"In fact it is. And oh, by the way…our ninjas have some…unexpected powers as well." Rin shrugged as-a-matter-of-factly. With that, she raised her arm, signaling the dark ninjas to attack. Once they did, the teens dispersed in all directions.

_With Neji and Tenten..._

Tenten and Neji backed into a corner of the room buying some time, although Neji was not fond of the idea of hiding. They got their weapons set.

"It's not pretty but…it's necessary." Tenten sighed to herself. Neji heard, and looked at her. She slipped her skirt off to reveal shorts underneath (AN: Neji wasn't like "dang" or anything…he's not like that). She had snuck them on between first and second bell, not adapting to the uncomfortable feeling that her underwear could be exposed any minute. She also took off her jacket. She would just have to fight in a tube top she figured, as uncomfortable as it was. The last thing was her hair. Regardless of what her friends say about her hair, she took out two hair ties and tied two tight buns securely at either side of her head. Neji just went on looking at her.

"I…I know it's kind of childish…and weird…but," Tenten began bashfully. Neji stopped her.

"Not at all, I think its…" Neji twitched a little, as if the thing he was about to say next was very hard for him. "…cute." He broke a small smile and blushed. When he realized what he was doing, he cleared his throat and put on a mean-business expression.

As twenty ninjas locked on to their position, they came at the two, orbs of power forming in their palms. Tenten gulped. This was obviously the power they had. Unexpectedly, they ran past Neji and went for Tenten. Neji's eyes widened. _What?_

Although Tenten was caught off guard, she was prepared too. She reached into her weapon pouch and took out the kunai. Neji's kunai.

"It won't work!" A ninja yelled as he and the other ninjas raised their palms, about to strike at once. They had surrounded her in a dome-like manner, ensuring no escape. Tenten stood her ground.

"Speak for yourself," Tenten said firmly, holding the kunai out in front of her. She looked at Neji, who was looking back at her. He was giving her a questioning expression, as if asking if he should take care of this. Surprisingly, she returned it in a way that said she wanted to handle this on her own. Since Neji understood everything, he could understand this. His eyes were wide and for the first time, she saw passion and fear for her safety. Seeing Neji only fed her desire to stay where she was that much more.

Suddenly, as fast as the ninjas had ran at Tenten, they came to a halt, and they stumbled back in horror. Tenten looked at her ankle. The lines had just barely not enveloped her entire body, and as long as they were not fully out reached, she could still get a hold of her powers. The lines as well as the mark on her ankle began to glow a brownish color. The earth around Tenten shook, as it grew overcome with power. The kunai began to glow as well, becoming interlocked with the power of the mark. Tenten developed a brown powerful aura. A few rocks rose from the ground and gathered around her. She drew back the kunai. About ten sharp-edged rocks flew into other air and surrounded the circumference of the kunai. Then, Tenten struck the first ten Ninja, all in one blow. Many sharp rocks seemed to move with the motions of the kunai, so it was a piece of cake for Tenten.

Neji was flabbergasted by this onslaught of power. He knew that she had hidden power like his own, but he had no idea she could utilize it so well.

Power remained in Tenten's eyes. She lifted her other arm, and the ground she was standing on tore from the ground and levitated. Tenten managed to keep her balance. The rock lifted her high above the five of the ninja, who were cowering in the corner Neji and herself were just it. Complete roll-reversal.

As long as Tenten's mark was active, she was not about to spare any lives that meant nothing to her. Especially those threatening to take her and her…close one's…lives. Bringing her hands up, lifting many rocks with them, she was poised to crush the ninjas. All of a sudden, just as she was about to release the power, she felt her arms snatched from behind her and twisted backward. She screeched in pain. It was the other five ninjas. _How did I miss those ones?_

"Invisibility…it's a great technique, is it not?" The ninja who had her arms asked of Tenten. Tenten dropped to the floor but they still had hold of her arms. At this point, they were definitely broken (AN: Kinda like how Zaku's were, but not as serious.) While her hands were behind her, they took the kunai from her hands as if they were parents taking candy from a baby. Tenten squinted her eyes shut. _No…_

One of the ninjas lifted the kunai, ready to strike Tenten fiercely. He swung it down. Just as the kunai was about to come in contact with Tenten's skin, it stopped. The ninja gasped and kept trying to break the force protecting Tenten. However much he tried, he could not. If Tenten had enough strength in her arms, she would have taken this chance to snatch back the kunai, but she couldn't. She caught glimpses of the handle though…the 'N. Hyuuga' inscribed on it began to glow. The light coming from the initials swathed the weapon and it heated up. The ninja holding it withdrew quickly, dropping the kunai immediately.

Neji walked over and picked it up, twirling it between his fingers casually.

"Looks like some people haven't yet learned at their preschool that stealing has consequences." Neji slowly walked towards the ninjas as they instinctively walked back with every step he took toward them, one of them clutching his burnt hand.

Neji, like Tenten, lifted the kunai as it was followed by even more rocks of all different minerals. They were definitely deadly. Tenten was still on the floor, feeling helpless. Then she looked in the corner to see five other ninjas piled up in a corner, dead. She grinned. She knew just who was behind it.

By the time she looked back at the other five ninjas, all Tenten could see were bodies laid sprawled out on the ground. Her eyes widened.

"Ne…Neji…" She gasped, surprised at the quick defeat. He looked back at her and kneeled down beside her. He looked at her bruised arms.

"Don't worry," he said, helping her up. "I'll take care of it." He reached into his pouch and pulled out some pills. Tenten looked confused.

"What are those?"

"They're kind of like food pills, only they restore health," Neji replied. Then he turned slightly pink. Why couldn't he act like the impassive and cold Neji he had lived up to for all these years? "These are the last ones I have left and…I simply thought if I wanted anyone to use them it would be…" Neji was interrupted when Tenten lightly kissed him on the lips. "…you." He finished, blushing madly. Tenten blushed too. They shared a look of understanding before breaking the link and getting serious. Tenten swallowed the pills with her spit and they both looked for their friends, their hearts pounding in the process.

_With Hinata and Naruto..._

Hinata and Naruto ran down a corridor they had found. To their dismay, it led to a dead end.

"Crap!" Naruto yelled. Hinata just shivered. Naruto looked back at her. "Don't worry Hinata, we'll find a way out of this," he assured her. She stopped quivering and nodded, wanting to look confident.

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Hinata heard a hard clink of weapons and spun around to see Naruto holding a ninja, who was most likely going for Hinata, off with a kunai. Hinata gasped.

"Naruto!" she cried, almost in tears to see him in the struggle. It was quite a struggle- as fine as Naruto was trying to make it appear, he was obviously shaking and pulsating. Hinata didn't like watching this one bit. Rin's parting words to her came flowing back into her head, like an annoying song that won't stay away.

_"You are weak and fragile...people like you will never succeed. If it weren't for the help of your friends, you wouldn't even be alive right now."_

Hinata squinted back tears. She had met the sad truth, and the truth was that Rin was right. All she had ever done was watch people protect her, never participating in the dilemma to begin with. And now…the lives of her friends and Naruto were on the line and she was just standing along the sidelines, watching every bit of it. Just as Rin had said.

Hinata, shivering, pulled a shuriken out of her weapons pouch. Still shaking, she held it back, ready to catapult it at the ninjas. The one fighting off Naruto took a second to look at her.

"Stay back little girl. You know, I was planning to kill you…but you seemed all too innocent and pitiful. I guess I will just have to kill your boyfriend instead…so why don't you just put that sharp weapon down before you hurt yourself." Hinata had experienced degradation before, but this she could not take. Definitely not in front of the person she cared for. She slightly loosened her grip on the kunai. Just as she did, a second memory flooded back into her thoughts.

_"Do you see now? Not only are you weak, but you are ignorant as well! This is why you will not make it. Trusting your enemies just because they tell you to? You will certainly perish long before the others. And I'm not the only one who sees it…they do to."_

It was this thought that fed Hinata's strength. Never before had she became so determined to achieve one goal. And this goal was to prove Rin wrong. She could be strong, and she didn't need her friends help to survive. She would prove it right here and now.

Hinata lowered her gaze. Her mark grew, and covered her. Her body was outlined in a flowy blue line, and her eyes had grown powerful and confident as opposed to shy and quiet. Naruto took a moment to look at her. _She's releasing it…she's no longer afraid! I knew she would be able to from the moment I saw her._

Water began to squirt rapidly through the cracks in the corridor like pipes springing leaks all at once. She raised her arm and the flow strengthened. In fear, the ninjas backed off Naruto and looked around for an easy escape but the only entrance closest to them was blocked off by rocks (guess by whom?).

Naruto scrambled over to Hinata.

"Hinata…" he began.

"Naruto." Hinata interrupted in a deep tone you would never hear Hinata Hyuuga use. "Stay behind me. I've got this." She thought the words as the water pressure intensified. _I've got this._

After a period of raising her arm, Hinata brought it down again and pointed at the enemies. In the blink of an eye, all the water shooting from the cracks all shot directly at the ninjas, blasting them with enough force to tear open a human. Hinata knew that the pressure of the water blasts was enough to kill, so she grabbed Naruto by the hand and pulled him out of the corridor into safety before they were sucked into the flooding corridor by the accumulating water.

As they leapt out into the football field-sized room, they shakily stood up. Hinata's power had long since faded, and she was back to her normal self.

"Hinata…" Naruto began.

"I'm so sorry Naruto. I know I should have stepped in earlier but I was just…"

"Hinata."

"I don't know, but the thing is I guess I just really…care about you and I couldn't bear to see you hurt, and…." Before she could go on, Naruto pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek. She blushed madly.

"I know, Hinata, I know," he said, still embracing Hinata. Hinata hugged back. Regardless of all the unfortunate events that had occurred that day, she was glad they happened. As a result, not only did she finally admit her feelings to Naruto, but she also proved herself to everyone. That was all she really wanted to do in the end.

_With Sakura and Sasuke..._

"This way, Sakura!" Sasuke tugged Sakura behind a large pillar as they braced themselves for the attackers. They panted as they reached for their weapons.

"Sasuke," Sakura said to Sasuke as he summoned up his Sharingan. He looked at her, and she was almost taken aback by the red of his eyes. She liked the dangerous air it gave him. Realizing this was entirely the wrong time to check Sasuke out, Sakura got to her point. "I was thinking. And if we are going to die here, then I thought I should tell you that," She stopped in her words when a dagger was flung just barely missing her head. She slightly dripped blood down her forehead, but it wasn't serious. She gulped. _I guess this will have to wait till later._

Sasuke leapt out from behind the pillar and attacked. Half the ninjas took on him, while the other half cornered Sakura. Sasuke defeated each ninja with much ease, but Sakura could not summon up a way to get out of her position.

_"If you're not careful, that oversized brain might become a bit of a burden for you. Who knows…maybe when you need it the most…it will turn on you."_

Well this was just brilliant. Now of all times. She could always think up some way to get out of twists, but now…she was empty. She could not seem to grasp any sort of knowledge as to how to save her. She could only think of one thing that would get her easily out of this situation. And that was her mark. As the ninja were enjoying her mental struggle, Sakura's mark took her over and wind began to swirl around her.

"Hey Sakura, I finished off the ninja over…" Sasuke stopped when he saw Sakura's transformation. "…Here?"

As the wind around Sakura increased, she thought to herself. Oh, big brain within my wide forehead, don't fail me now.

It certainly did not, as the wind slowly but surely moved away from Sakura and to the enemies. It broke off into two. Then four. Then six. They continued to multiply until they surrounded the ninja. The ninja were all swept up by the small tornadoes, and after they were, each miniature tornado joined into one to create just about the deadliest cyclone you could ever see. They swirled round and round in the wind until they became blurs. After Sakura thought it was enough, she ceased the harsh winds and the ninja's fell to the floor, limp. She smiled with gratitude as the mark receded.

Sasuke stood with his mouth hung open. That happened all too fast…how did she possibly do that?

Sakura felt her knees wobble, and her legs give out from under her. It took a lot of energy to create a simply tornado. Sasuke ran over and caught her in her mid-fall. Sakura looked up at him trying as hard as she could to keep her eyes open. How could she possibly pass out in the midst of being held in the arms of the guy in which she maybe…loved?

Unfortunately, Sakura's many attempts failed, and the last thing she saw before falling asleep was Sasuke's mouth coming own onto her own. She smiled lightly as she fell into a peaceful sleep. Her mind had come through after all.

_With Ino and Shikamaru..._

"Go back to the others! We want to handle these two on our own." Temari turned to look at Ino and Shikamaru defiantly, Kankuro at her side.

Ino attempted bolting for it, but Temari flipped open her newly fixed fan, blocking her passage.

"Ah, ah, ah, Ino!" Temari wagged a finger at the disgruntled Ino. "It's rude to run away from a conversation."

"It depends on your idea of a conversation…" Ino growled.

"Watch it there, Ino!" Kankuro said, wiggling his fingers as his puppet moved in the same motions. "You wouldn't want my fingers to accidentally…slip." Just as he said this, he let loose two threads. Two poisonous needles were flung at Ino and Shikamaru. Ino knew what would come next, but still attempted dodging. Like that's going to save me.

Shikamaru dove in front of Ino, pushing her aside as Sasuke had done with Sakura. Only unlike Sasuke, Shikamaru ended up taking both hits.

"Shikamaru!" Ino dropped to her knees next to Shikamaru, taking his hand. He quivered.

"Ino," he said wrapping his fingers tightly around hers. "Before anything else happens…I just have to admit…"

"Yeah, yeah, 'you love her and could not live with yourself if anything happened to her.'" Kankuro mimicked, interrupting the moment. Temari chuckled.

"My, my, Shika, you still are as dense as ever." Temari laughed as she walked to where the couple was. "Do you not remember me telling you that fuzzy moments piss me off more than anything?" She raised her fan. Shikamaru grunted and grabbed his stomach.

Oh God no. Ino bit her lip. The poison was getting to his system. As if the situation weren't bad enough, they also had two rivals who's intent was to crush their souls in their presence. There was simply no bright side to look on. Except…

Of course…the mark.

"What's this? Don't tell me you're trying to win!" Temari laughed and directed her fan towards the standing Ino. "No matter what you do, Shikamaru will die."

"And this is coming from my girlfriend until only two hours ago?" Shikamaru said with some strength he had left, raising an eyebrow. Temari glared at him.

"Don't worry Shika. You won't have to worry about that anymore, since you will be dead within a few minutes. The poison of Kankuro's puppet- Kankuro? What are you doing?" Temari barked at Kankuro, who was switched liquid-filled bottles in his puppet. He stopped and looked at his sister in a nervous way.

"Um…hehe…uh…" He began, rubbing the back of his head.

"Tell me…that was poison." Temari growled at him, clutching her fan in anger. Kankuro shakily stood up straight.

"Well, you know the paralyzation serum I injected in Ino earlier? Well, it was kind of in the puppet, and I didn't realize until just now that I had the poison in my pocket and-"

"WHAT?" Kankuro was cut off by the scream of Temari. Kankuro tried to calm her down as she went on screaming at him how incompetent and stupid he was and so on…

Ino took this as her chance. She exchanged a look at Shika. He nodded. Just as Ino was about to concentrate on her mark, Shikamaru slowly grabbed her wrist with the last inch of movement he had and pressed it on his own mark. Ino's eyes turned to surprise, as she felt power surge through her and the lines from Shikamaru's seal pull back in. Once the process was complete, Shikamaru released her, grinning. Temari and Kankuro continued bickering, not noticing at all what just happened.

"Ok…" he began. "Go now." He kissed Ino. Ino was enjoying it until she felt Shikamaru's lips stiffen. Was she doing something wrong? Was she a bad kisser or something? She withdrew with a hurt expression on her face.

"Sorry…Serum…" Shikamaru explained as his whole body stiffened out.

"Oh…" Ino turned red. "Right…" Though she was slightly angered that thanks to the serum, the kiss had been ruined, it was much better than having him die. She turned back to the enemies, and used her powers as well as Shika's to break her seal. It was then that the siblings finally noticed that Ino had changed.

"You idiot! Had you done something right for a change, we would have crushed them by now!" Temari yelled at Kankuro. Ino smirked as she once again took up her flaming aura and fiery eyes.

"Now where were we when we left off?" Ino said to Temari, as a fireball developed in her palm again only much larger thanks to the distribution of power from Shikamaru. "Oh yeah, I remember. I was about to finish you off." Ino threw the fireball at Temari, and decided to split it so one would hit Kankuro too. "And this is for grabbing my butt and harassing me in the hallway!" Ino snapped at Kankuro. Temari attempted blowing the fire away from her with her fan, but the orb did not waver whatsoever. It was going to be a dead hit. It burned through Kankuro's puppet (AN: REJOICE! THE UGLY PUPPET IS GONE!), then through Temari's fan. Unfortunately, although Temari's blow had not lessened the fireball, it had in fact shifted its direction ever so slightly. Temari's had just gone over her head, though it set her hair on fire. Kankuro's hood had caught on fire. They were both jumping around hysterically as Shikamaru and Ino watched them, amused.

"MY HAIR! MY HAIR!" Temari shook her head in hopes to set the fire out, but it would not work. Kankuro did the same with his own hood, but it wouldn't come out. Ino decided to leave them like that, seeing as they were utterly too defenseless and pathetic to be worth a cool death. While the two were running around frantically, Ino lifted the stiff Shikamaru and carried him back to the big room, running. She smiled as she did so. As far as she could see, the good prophecy was fulfilling.

_Back at the football field-sized room..._

"Look! Sasuke!" Sakura pointed at the doorway. "Is that…?"

"Yep," Tenten answered, laughing at the site. Ino was running towards them, having a hard time supporting Shikamaru's weight. Her friends ran to help her and they set Shikamaru down gently. The effect was wearing off, so he could almost sit up.

"So, it looks like you guys had success?" Neji asked Shikamaru. Shikamaru nodded as he and Ino grinned at each other, then looked back at the hallway they had come from. They could see it glow from within, and then laughed. Everyone looked at them for laughing randomly. They stopped.

"I think we all did!" Said Naruto cheerfully, jumping up and down. "Even them!" He pointed at the pillar. Sitting down were the fellowship, looking as if they had not moved at all. They had no wounds or scratches on them.

"What the…?" Tenten asked, looking them up and down.

"Well, seeing as no one came after us, we felt no reason to attack." Kiba shrugged, putting his hands behind his head.

"No one came after you?" Hinata asked surprised.

"Not a soul," answered Kiba.

"It is not that we did not want to help you! It's just that we did not want to step in the way of prophecy." Lee assured them. They all sighed. That was the fellowship for you.

"Guys…" Sakura gulped. They all looked at her.

"What is it?" asked Ino. Sakura lifted a shaking finger a few meters away. Standing there were Rin and Kiroku with very troubled looks on their faces. On one side of them was Temari, only with her hair all blackened and burnt. The teens laughed at this, earning a scowl from Temari. On the other side was Kankuro, the top of his hood burnt, and the top of his head bald. They laughed even more.

"I thought you said you and your army could handle them…" Kiroku growled at Temari.

"I thought we could…" Temari tightened a fist.

"You really screwed up this time." Rin said. Temari looked at the floor, knowing about the consequences that would most likely follow.

"No matter," sighed Kiroku, stepping forward. "If these amateurs could not defeat you…it looks like we will just have to take care of you ourselves." Rin cackled a bit and stepped forward with him, winking.

"Indeed we will," she said as they both held their hands open, ready to yoke their strength together. The teens backed away, ready to attack when necessary. The pairs linked hands from behind their backs. Kiba looked around. I wish I had a hand to hold…he looked at Shino, Lee and Chouji. On the second thought, never mind.

Just as suddenly as everything had been that day, something intercepted Rin and Kiroku's path toward the teens. It was sand. They all looked to the right at the source.

Out of the shadows stepped Akio.

"If you think I will let you hurt these teenagers, you have one more thing coming…mom and dad." Slowly, Akio began to morph. He began to shrink in height and his hair turned red. His eyes were black around the edges, and he looked about the same age as the teens now. They stood open mouthed, watching this change. Who knew?

"Gaara…" Rin narrowed her eyes. "After all these years…" She closed her eyes and laughed to herself.

"You always were the disappointment of the family." Kiroku shook his head. "So desperate, you had to take up the alias of a high school math teacher? How pitiful. At least your brother and sister here were crafty." The boy who was apparently Gaara now, also narrowed his eyes.

"You wouldn't know crafty if it kicked you in the butt, father. But you will soon. I will finish this once and for all."

**Wow, extra long chappie! I added romance too, because I realized my story was lacking that element a bit. I hope you guys liked reading this chapter as much as I liked writing it : ) Sorry if it was unbearably cheesy to anyone! But again, I hope you like where the story is. Climax! Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun……sorry. Very late at night. Just had soccer game. Must upload chapter…thanks so much for reading, stay tuned! (Always wanted to know how it felt it say that…)**


	14. A Family Affair

**Sorry guys for the big hold ups in between chappies…so…much…work to do…it's overwhelming. And to add to everything, guess what? I have this book project for censored books and we had to draw out of a hat and then write a book report on it. And guess what I got? A whats-happening-to-my-body sex book. A MALE sex book. Why on earth was that in that hat I drew from? That will make for an odd summary. Sorry for going off topic! Enjoy!**

Chapter 13

A Family Affair

"Not if we finish it first, brother." Temari stepped forth. Gaara looked at her as if she was an annoying pest (which she is).

"Ah, Temari." Gaara summoned his sand. "You always were one to push things." Temari gasped, forgetting what happened when you angered Gaara. She flipped open her fan, which unfortunately had a huge burn through it, thus having no effect. Gaara chuckled under his breath. _It's always been easy to frighten her._

"Um, Gaara, on the second thought, let's talk things out rationally," Kankuro attempted to reason. The teens just watched as this conversation went back and forth, still trying to process Akio's true identity.

Gaara shot Kankuro a look of anger. "Talk things out rationally? Did you agree to 'talk things out rationally' when you decided to exile me?" Gaara's sand grew and grew until there was almost an entire river of it around him.

"Um, dear son, it was for your own good, you have to understand that," Rin attempted as she eyed the sand nervously, though it was an obvious lie. Gaara spat.

"Don't pretend you have no idea, mother," Gaara advanced on his family members. "It was because I was stronger than you. You feared that I could easily squash your little plans for this 'dark prophecy'." Gaara then looked at his siblings. "And you two went around telling each village inhabitant that I was a murderous monster, out for blood." His siblings backed away as Gaara stepped toward them. "Little do you know, my siblings, the only blood I crave…is yours." At these words, the teens were taken aback. They had no idea that beneath that happy face of Akio, there lied a powerful teenager with just as bad a past as they had, if not worse. They were not sure what to make of him at such a homicidal state. Temari and Kankuro backed away in horror, then turned into an all out maniac run from their deaths. Rin and Kiroku stumbled back. The girls and boys relished this site.

"Hn." Gaara's sand shifted again, though he made no move to follow them. He knew he could perform the sand coffin…but people like them didn't deserve such an awesomely maneuvered death (AN: ok, I added a bit of my own thoughts there). He knew he could just as easily scare them to their deaths. He sent the sand after them.

"Don't do anything foolish, son." Kiroku held up his hand warningly. Gaara was not threatened. He continued to let his sand pursue his family.

Upon watching this, Ino began to shake. She didn't want to watch this happen…without helping that is. A wide grin crept across her face.

"Maybe we should lend a hand guys…" She said to her friends, standing up as her mark began to glow.

"I like that idea," Sasuke said, standing up as well. "Very much." The rest of the teens stood up with them. They all looked back at the fellowship.

"Well…" Sakura began. "You guys don't exactly have any powers…" Kiba raised an eyebrow, stepping forward.

"Hey," he said raising his hands up. "We aren't in the prophecy for nothing." He looked back at the rest of the fellowship. "Guys?" they all nodded. They stood up and gathered in a small circle and got on their knees. They made a seal with their hands and began to recite something. It was the prophecy.

As they progressed through the prophecy, an orb of light began to formulate in the center, growing with every word they said. At the end of the prophecy, it was at it's largest, and the teens had to avert their eyes from its radiant glow.

"And let the power of the fellowship diffuse!" The fellowship said in unison. That very second, the orb separated into eight parts. Each part shot into the mark of each marked person. They cringed in slight pain, but it was over just as fast. They looked at the fellowship.

"It will enhance your strength by ten times." Lee explained to them. "You will need it…Gaara won't be able to hold them off forever." They looked back at what was happening. Lee was right- Gaara was having a hard time fending off Rin and Kiroku as Temari and Kankuro were still fumbling in back of them.

"Right," said Tenten, her mark glowing. "Thanks guys…we'll take it from here." With a resounding 'thanks' the chosen ones and sentinels ran to join the fight.

"Ooh, look here hun, more playmates!" Rin laughed cruelly while she and Kiroku were blasting power bolts at the dodging Gaara. He had sand to protect him from hits, but it could only move so fast, and the bolts were pretty erratic.

"All the more fun to kill." Kiroku answered back, a grin just as evil. "I think we better use our trump card for these rats." Rin nodded. They took their attention off Gaara, who had been hit twice in his arms. Being one who had rarely experienced pain, he was having a hard time taking it. He clutched his bleeding wounds.

Rin and Kiroku faced the others. The fellowship had made themselves hidden while the others brought their marks to life. The lines had fully extenuated along their bodies, glowing. They also were surrounded by their auras and as a whole, they created one scary site surrounded by a freakishly fluorescent light. This did not scare Rin and Kiroku though.

"You kids," Rin shook her head. "You're all the same. No matter how much knowledge is shoved down your throats, you can just…never…learn!" She threw bolts at them between each word. However, the mix of auras deflected them. She gasped in surprise, but was not worried. She had definitely not reached the most effective of her attacks just yet.

"It is you who will never learn." Neji shook his head this time. "Perhaps you have not noticed all your ninjas dead. We were the cause of death." The rest of them nodded boldly. It was just then that they noticed Temari and Kankuro.

"You two…" Ino squinted at them. "I'll take you two since I have been the most annoyed by you since we met," she said in mark-induced harshness. She walked towards them and they stumbled back again. Ino mentally laughed. She conjured up a simple fire blast and blew them each into the wall. Her rage added to the fire's intensity, and together, they created a lethal blow. With more burnt then just her hair, Temari slid down the wall.

"Screw…you." She muffled before falling limp into death (AN: Ding dong, the wicked witch is dead!).

"I never liked you anyway." Kankuro coughed as he too fell flat.

This added to Rin and Kiroku's rage.

"Why you…" she looked at Kiroku furiously. "It's time!" he nodded in agreement. It was then that a light began to emit from each of their foreheads. Slowly, a seal began to form. Only it was much different from the kid's marks. These marks were ragged and criss-crossing and other marks of shear evil. The teens backed away confusedly.

Neji twitched. _What's this strange up-rise of energy…crap. This cannot mean good for us._

The marks upon Kiroku and Rin's heads began to gleam. As they did, the couple began to take on different forms. Their hair turned a dark charcoal, their skin ashen gray. Their lips also went very dark, and their eyes turned red. Their hands and arms became crooked and odd looking, dangling at their sides like lanterns in the wind. The dark robes they had already donned had made the look that much more frightening. The girls gulped. This wasn't going to be so easy anymore.

"So how do you like my new look girls?" Rin asked of the girls, her voice now like a snake's (well…if a snake had voice it would sound something like hers). "I'm thinking of making everyone this way once our prophecy pulls through…starting with you and your friends." The girls cringed. They certainly were not about to succumb to that fashion statement.

"But to do that…" Kiroku began to glow, as did Rin. "We must rid you of your current souls." They began to charge up, and all possible escape exits were suddenly shut down. They were all trapped. The evil two began to snicker wickedly. They were glowing a tremendous light, and the teens then knew that whatever power they had in store for them, it was going to be deadly. They prepared themselves as best they could, although they knew there was no way to run from this.

"Ino…" Shikamaru laced his fingers through Ino's. Ino slightly jumped, but then calmed down instantly at the touch of Shikamaru's fingers to hers. She felt safer with him.

Tenten felt something put her in hand once again before feeling a surge of deja vu. She looked down to see the kunai in her hand again. Neji folded her fingers over the handle, just so that they were grazing his name. She looked up, and this time Neji did not look away like he didn't care. Their eyes locked, and she instantly knew that he did care.

"I guess it was bound to happen…" Sakura whispered to herself as she shook. Even with her mark active, she could not find her strength. That is, until she felt fingers on her cheek. She looked and saw that they were Sasuke's. He gave her look telling her to be strong. He understood. _Sasuke…_Sakura thought, as she sucked up her anxiety. This was something so…unlike Sasuke. _I will be strong…for you and for everyone._

"Just don't think of it as death." Naruto consoled Hinata, as Rin and Kiroku increased in size. Hinata put her hand over her face. Why was it that she always had to emotionally break down in the presence of those she cared the most about? "And look at it this way…" Naruto said in a more serious tone. "At least we will die together." This was enough to make Hinata smile.

"We're not letting you guys go through this alone." The teens looked back to see the fellowship.

"We're all a part of the prophecy," Lee said. "Thus it is only fitting that we die along with you."

"It's unfortunate it had to happen this way but…" Shino sighed, stepping forth. "We must." They smiled at the fellowship. They had thought they were ones to run away from danger. Turns out they were wrong.

They stood their grounds and prepared to be hit. The sentinels and chosen ones smiled at them for being that brave before Kiroku interrupted them.

"Say your prayers, children!" Kiroku roared, as electric energy spiraled around them. "You should have listened to us…you could have died such a quick, sharp death. But no…you had to push things. And now look where you are. Prepare to be exterminated you filthy rats!" The energy built up was now at it's highest, and Rin and Kiroku lunged at the kids. Many memories flashed through their brains, as if at the speed of light.

_You cannot escape your destinies…_

_You will never succeed…_

_You will break down…_

_Your brain will turn on you…_

_Your strength will betray you…_

_The only thing that can save you…_

_Did you all get those tattoos together?_

_Welcome to Konoha Village High!_

_I met a guy too…_

_The prophecy is unraveling…_

_You are the reincarnates of the past saviors…_

_History is repeating itself…_

_It's nice to see you girls again…_

_The dark prophecy…_

_We're all part of the prophecy…_

_We must._

You could say they saw their lives flash before their eyes. They saw it as if they had relived it. Each of them could not help but feel a large punch to their hearts when they were hit with the realization of failure. They had failed their ancestors and the world. They could not stop the dark from living their prophecy, and as a result everyone would now suffer, while they got the cheap escape of death. It…it was just not fair.

They each knew that in the next millisecond, they were about to come in contact with an excruciating death. They prepared themselves, ready to face their deserved fates.

They still waited.

And waited. Though it had only been a matter of seconds, the power should have hit them by then. _Ok, why aren't we dying yet? _

At long last, they opened their eyes. They gasped at what it was they saw. Ino clamped a hand over her mouth. _I…I can't believe it._

**Ok! To Rockleelover, you're right, this shouldn't be the last chapter, and so I decided to break it off here. I know it's not as eventful as the last one, but keep looking for the next chappie, though! Oh, and to everyone, no guessing the answer to the cliffy please! Haha when people do that they are usually right, and it sort of ruins the suspense a little (I shouldn't be one to talk since I always guess the cliffhangers too, but don't be like me!). Thanks so much everyone for reading, R and R!**


	15. Unsettled Business

**I. AM. SO. SORRY. As I said, updating has become so hard it's petrifying. I had a history test worth 70 of my year grade and guess how many questions it was? Three. Yep, only three. That means it was harder than frickin LIFE, so I had to study for it all week. Anyway, I make it up with this sort of longer than usual chappie, I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter 14

Unsettled Business

They opened their eyes to see Gaara standing in front of them. By the look of his staggering posture, torn up clothes and bloodied skin, they could tell right away what happened. He had taken the entire hit for them.

"G-g-gaara!" Ino yelled as she and the rest of the teens ran over to Gaara. He dropped on his knees and slowly began to fall over. They caught him. His face was twitching in pain.

Hinata looked over Naruto's shoulder at the damage. _My goodness…_he thought. _To think he endured all that pain…for us._

Gaara was not yet dead. He could still stutter, but his words were filled with pain. The sand around him suddenly dropped to the floor at once, loosing its life as if it too had taken a hard hit.

"It's ok all of you…" He grunted before clutching a wound in his side. "You need to go on. This is the only way to fulfill the prophecy. The right prophecy."

Ino looked down at him. Tears began to well up in her eyes. _Survivors…don't…_she couldn't take it. _Aw, screw it. _She let the tears roll. They streaked her blotched face.

"Aw, I knew I would be there to see the day you would finally break." Ino spun around to face Rin. Her sorrow had turned into pure hatred and anger.

"Get…out…of…my…face." She blasted Rin with all the power she could, to the other side of the room. Though she knew Rin was long from being defeated, she at least took her anger out and bought some time while Rin was lying there in pain. She turned her attention back to Gaara.

"You guys…you have to use this." He used his final strength to reach into his pocket and pull something out. It was a small gemstone, which had green, blue, white and red colors swirling to the middle. It confused them a small bit. He put it in Tenten's hand. "Use…it." He grunted.

"But how?" Hinata asked softly.

"The fellowship will know. Just please…use it quickly. We only have so much time left." At this, they jumped back a little.

"Time?" Shikamaru asked. "Since when were we given a time limit for this?" Gaara mentally slapped himself for not having told them before. He pointed at the gargoyles, which had been looking more and more living from the moment they looked at them.

"Those," he said. "When they reach their full life…you will know evil has prevailed. Those creatures haven't existed for the last century, and they are capable of destroying you." They looked at the gargoyle. All looked almost living except for the head, but they could see it rising ever so gradually. They were alarmed. He was right…they only had a little time left. They had to use it promptly. "So please, go on and use it. You will know what to do once it's activated." They all looked at Gaara again, their mouths open, having so many questions, yet seemingly not being able to bring themselves to ask them. "And don't feel sorrow for my death…" Gaara began, his voice fading. "After all…it's in your prophecy. Good luck my eternal friends." With those being his last words, Gaara fell lifeless. They all looked down.

_Even though a loss is made,_

_They then discover a fact._

"We have to do it now guys. To avenge Gaara…to save everyone," said Neji, looking at the ground as he recharged his mark power. They all nodded in agreement. They would succeed. They mentally vowed to it.

"Oh, I'm afraid that's not in _our_ prophecy dears!" They turned around and were all blown back by a strong force. Rin and Kiroku, still in their demon forms, were standing before them. They looked at the gargoyles. The life was now in the middle of their chins. They had to get some time. Rin lifted her index finger in attempt to lift them off their feet. However, it would not work. Her face turned mystified, as she continued to gesture her finger up. However much she tried, it would not work.

"Wha-" She was caught off guard by the punch of Neji that was follow by many rocks. Tenten helped him by ramming Rin out from under her feet. This move had her falling flat on her face.

Naruto and Hinata slammed a heavy wall of water at Kiroku, blowing him down. The ground he was blown into was dented in.

Neji and Tenten then summoned many rocks, piling them up. This blocked off Kiroku and Rin's path, giving them time to activate the gem Gaara gave them. They ran to the fellowship.

"He said you could lend us a hand." Shikamaru opened his hand that had the gem in it. When the fellowship saw it, they grinned.

"Excellent. We have it. It's all going to go uphill from here, my friends!" Kiba happily snatched the stone as he set it on the ground carefully. Sakura glanced at the gargoyles, which had now had life up to their mouths. _We need to do this fast._ The fellowship made their circle again. Only this time, they were reciting the prophecy…backwards. The stone began to rotate and grow, getting faster and faster. What did this mean?

"Your superiors won't save you. Your friends sure as hell won't save you. The only thing that can save you is…"

"And let the figures of our past grant us service!" They said together. The gem gave off a blinding light as they all shielded their eyes. When they could just barely see, they could see eight glowing figures.

"So these kids here are…them?" One asked, stepping forward. He looked almost exactly like Neji, only much taller and more toned. His hair was in a more secure ponytail. His voice was as smooth as ever though.

"Obviously…if we are here." Another said as they stepped forth. This one was feminine, and resembled Sakura only with longer, less shiny hair. She was medium height. The rest of them stepped out of the light. The teens could now process who they were.

"Are you…" Tenten stuttered in question.

"Our past selves?" Ino finished for her. The figures, who all resembled their reincarnates, nodded as their bright outlines glowed.

"Though you can probably tell already, let us introduce ourselves properly." One who resembled Tenten said. "I am Tensha." She looked very strong, which supported her element.

"I am Inoa," another, resembling Ino said as she bowed. "Reincarnate of this young lady." She gestured toward Ino. Inoa had wings of flames, giving her a dangerous and feisty air.

"Sakaria," Another, who had pearly white wings said as she gave a small curtsy. "Pleasure."

"And I am Hinalia," said the last feminine one who had a flowing blue robe and a vibrant hue aura. The girls nodded back, still in awe of their past selves. The guys looked at their previous selves.

"Sasuraku right?" Sasuke growled at his counterpart who had a headband and airy clothes.

"Yep." He answered simply back, saying nothing more. Yeah, this guy was just like Sasuke.

"Shikaru," The Shika counterpart said as he held a hand out to Shikamaru. He was medium height, very ripped, and spoke with a more raspy voice than Shikamaru. Shikamaru gladly took the hand and shook it.

"The name's Nejero." Neji's old self gave him a nod. Neji gave a slight nod back, but no great show of emotion.

"Ah, and who's this _fine_ man right here?" A tall spiky blond nudged Naruto who beamed. "Narutaku! Nice to meet ya!" He patted Naruto on the shoulder in a fun manner.

"Nice to meet you too! Or me…or…uh…" Naruto looked at the sky, looking for words. Narutaku laughed and patted his shoulder again.

"Don't hurt yourself, buddy!" He laughed as Naruto smiled again.

"It's great that we're all acquainted and everything, but in case no one has noticed, we only have about seven minutes left!" Ino said, pointing to the gargoyles. They all followed the direction of her finger to see that the life level had rise to the noses. They choked up a bit.

"Not to worry…" Shikaru said maliciously, passing a fireball back and forth in his hands. "This will be fun." Inoa nodded and winked. The saviors took to their reincarnates and whispered a plan in each of their ears. When they were done they all nodded.

"You guys hide behind this," Tensha said to the fellowship as she created a rock wall. "It's very durable, so your safety is insured. I only apologize that your past selves could not come." Kiba sighed.

"Don't mention it. I think we like it better this way." He said in an I-just-want-this-frickin-day-to-be-over way as they walked behind the rock. Tensha laughed at their flippant attitudes before Nejero called everyone to a silence.

"Let's go." Nejero said as they all charged around the rock mountain courtesy of Tenten and Neji, and got in their positions. Once they got there, they came to find an even more dangerous sight that made them take a few steps back. Rin and Kiroku had taller, more muscular and dark versions of themselves standing behind them. They all knew right away that they had the same plan as them.

"Ah, Rinua and Kirokoa," Sakaria said, stroking her chin. "Funny seeing you two around here." The figures who apparently were Rinua and Kirokoa stood with their arms crossed.

"It's simply been too long my…friends." Rinua said to the saviors as they all stood surrounding them.

"I couldn't agree more," said Hinalia. "In fact, we've waited nearly 150 years for this day. Now we can finally pay you back." She darkened her gaze at Rinua who laughed at her.

"I do see it has certainly taken you 150 years to find your boldness, Hinalia." She chuckled. "But I'm afraid not even with the help of your reincarnates will you be able to over throw us." Hinalia chuckled at this, making Rinua irritated.

"Go on then." The voice of Kirokoa said smoothly and dangerously. "Show us what you've got. I'm sure it's been a sufficient amount of time." Inoa swiped another glance at the gargoyles. The life level was reaching ever higher. She knew right then that Rinua and Kirokoa were haggling the time, and they would have to put their plan into action quickly. She gave a look to Nejero, who nodded back.

Nejero reached into his sash belt and slowly pulled out a sharp sparkly rock, unlike anything Neji had seen before. While Rinua and Kirokoa were still giving their it's-been-too-long speeches, he threw it at them close enough to whiz by their faces, but not kill them. Their words were cut off and their faces turned from utter surprise into murderous glares. This was a sure sign that they were ready.

"Let the fight begin." After saying this, Kirokoa dashed to one side while Rinua dashed to the other. Rin and Kiroku began to fight the teens head on.

"You guys take these amateurs…" Narutaku said to the teens as he traced the agile movements of his past enemies. "I'm afraid to say that those two are out of your league."

"Right." Sasuke nodded, as he began to sweep up some dirt from the harsh wind he was gradually beginning to create. With a final nod, the saviors darted after Kirokoa and Rinua.

"It's unfortunate…I was looking forward to diminishing those oafs along with you brats…" Rin said in a feigned sad tone, giving a mock sniffle. "But I guess we'll just have to take you out first." She began to charge her power balls before flinging them forcefully at the teens. Fortunately for them, they were well equipped with defenses and attacks.

"Tenten!" Neji called to Tenten. She looked at him. "Give me your hand!" confused, Tenten obeyed. Neji took out a kunai and pricked her palm, a bead of blood dribbling down from it.

"Ow! What are you-" Neji then pricked his own palm, then pressed it into hers. Tenten looked even more surprised. _Uh…blood brother? _After she felt a surge of power move through her, she knew right away that that was not Neji's intent. They were charging each other's powers…even greater than the fellowship had. She looked at her palm, which began to radiate with power. She then grinned. She knew automatically what to do next.

She and Neji faced towards the wall behind Rin and Kiroku, who were then dodging Shikamaru and Ino's fireballs, and held their hands out at it. With a strong rush of power, they blew it out from behind the Rin and Kiroku and the two got thrust forward to the ground. They had shards of rock from the wall stuck in their backs, as blood slowly began to bleed through their dark robes. Rin shakily supported herself up.

"Now…" She pulled a rock out from her arm as Kiroku began to stand. "I am really angry." She ran at Neji and Tenten. Neji wrapped his arms around Tenten for protection, making Tenten blush and forget about the danger for a split second. _He's so sweet when he's not being a stiff…_

Neji's protection wasn't needed however, when all of a sudden Rin and Kiroku were swept up into a water cyclone created by the combined powers of Sakura, Sasuke, Hinata and Naruto.

"Wow, you're better at this than I am!" Naruto did his infamous smile to Hinata, who blushed.

"Thank you Naruto." She answered as they continued to help move the water with the wind. She looked at the gargoyles too. The level was now at the top of their noses. Luckily, those ugly things had pretty big heads.

Sasuke and Sakura were the lead controllers of the twister, so their physical ability was much more significant. It took much of their energy to create such a huge whirlwind, but their anger of Gaara's death only fed to their power.

"By the way, Sakura?" Sasuke grunted, as it was becoming increasingly more difficult to support the power of the twister.

"Yes, Sasuke?" Sakura said back with just as much difficulty in her voice.

"I'm sorry for being rude to you in math…urgh…and interrogating you." He apologized. Sakura's face turned to surprise. She had known enough of his personality to know that an apology from him was quite rare. Better late than never. "I just wanted to…agh…tell you…"

"Sasuke, look out!" Sakura cut him off. He shifted his attention towards the power ball falling in his direction and just barely dodged it. He looked up at the heated battle taking place above them between the figures of their past.

"Ooh…" Sasuraku tutted at his enemies, looking down at the nearly fried Sasuke. "Looks like you nearly hit my reincarnate. We have punishments for that." With much stronger a force than Sasuke and Sakura could produce, he blew a spiral wind at Rinua and Kirokoa. They spun for a bit, but were not effected.

"Silly man," Rinua said as she charged up again. "You're going to have to do better than that…" The long time opponents lunged at each other again, the battle once again beginning.

Down below, the winds had ceased and Rin and Kiroku were knocked almost senseless in dizzy confusion, not being able to stand on their feet. They were hobbling around, seemingly unable to harness their power up. The teens used this to their advantage.

Ino ran towards them, her fists filled with fire. She was read to take them both out in one swift blow. However, only feet away from them, they poised up and hit her stomach very hard, causing her to choke up blood. They grinned in satisfaction, as they looked down at the coughing Ino, now standing with posture and no hint of dizziness. Ino's friends watched this in fear and confusion. What had just happened?

"Do you honestly think that we would falter at the face of a stupid little tornado?" laughed Kiroku as he snatched Ino up by her collar. "You kids have become so vulnerable." He took out a dagger and to Shikamaru's great fear, stabbed it into Ino's…arm. Believe it or not, arm. Ino was bewildered, but didn't attempt pondering this in her pain. Kiroku left the dagger deep within her arm and dropped her to the floor. Shikamaru ran to her, along with the rest of her friends.

"Of course we have decided not kill you just yet…" Kiroku looked at the gargoyle, whose lifeline now was at the bottom eyelids. "With the help of ourselves, we have plans for that. But that won't stop us from causing you great…pain." As he said this, he blew the others off their feet and flat on the ground. Shikamaru didn't budge though.

"Ah, still stubborn Nara." Kiroku laughed. "Tell you what, I will let you have a little moment with your true love before we take your souls. How about it?" Shika ignored him and looked down at Ino. Her wound was incredibly deep, and there was a chance of either severe blood loss, many veins or arteries severed, or both. Either way, he didn't want to let it happen.

Ino was squinting in pain. Now that she had already let her tears loose that day, she had no problem with letting them flow again. Shikamaru took her hand in his and squeezed it.

"It'll be ok Ino…" he said quietly, reaching into his pocket. He tore off a strip of his shirt and pulled a liquid out of his pocket. He put some liquid on the fabric. "Ok…this is going to sting just a little. But trust me, you will feel better." He gently dabbed at the wound.

Ino took a sharp breath in as this happened. It did sting. But just as fast as the pain came, it stopped. She looked at her arm. The wound began to seal up to her surprise. She was stunned at she watched the cuts retract and her blood fade away.

"Shikamaru!" She said to Shikamaru who was grinning back at her passionately. "I…it's just…"

"Your welcome." He cut her off. He smiled and gave her a quick peck on her lips. They both smiled.

"Ok…moment is now done!" Kiroku took a slash at them, but Shikamaru rolled both himself and Ino out of the way into safety. They got to their feet and joined the rest of their friends. They were now all face to face with their enemies, as if in a staring contest.

"I have a thought," Neji began quietly only to his friends.

"Hey, I'm pretty open to anything right about now," Naruto said through his teeth.

"I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a try. Since we can already charge and combine energy with our other element…perhaps all of us could combine our elements into one." Neji looked at them all for consent.

"Like one giant death force." Tenten said maliciously.

"Exactly." Neji began to smile too.

"I think that will work," said Sakura after mulling the idea over in her head.

"Yes, let's try it." Hinata said, happy that they had a plan. They looked at the Rin and Kiroku, who then also looked like they were forming a plan, then to the gargoyles. They still had enough time.

Tenten was well equipped. She took out Neji's kunai. "Ok guys, we all need to prick out palms with this ok? Just make sure you don't puncture a vein." They all nodded. Tenten pricked her palm and passed it around. Everyone followed suit. Once they were all pricked, they formed a quick circle and pressed their hands together. They closed their eyes, and could feel their energies flowing through one another. They could almost feel the water, earth, fire and wind flowing through their souls and through their hands.

In the center of the circle, something began to formulate. It was an orb with rocks, fire, wind and water revolving around it. It grew and grew until it reached a sufficiently deadly size. The teens all exchanged a look that said, _perfect_.

They looked at Rin and Kiroku, who had certainly not failed to notice this. The orb turned in the same direction, seeming to obey their mental directions. They shared another look and grinned. They all rose their hands in the air, the deadly orb rising too. Rin and Kiroku knew there was no way they could get out of this. The kids all then thrust their hands in the direction of their enemies.

"We've been wanted to do this for a long time." Ino said.

"Longer than you will ever know." Sakura finished. With that, the ball shot directly at the two. The kids covered their eyes as a large light emitted from the impact, and when they opened them, all was left was, well, nothing. Just some smoke rising up from two scorched marks on the ground. The teens were satisfied.

"It's about time," sighed Hinata, breaking the silence. They all smiled. They were glad they had half of their problems out of their system. Now they could finally put their main plan to action.

Before they could think, they saw the saviors, Rinua and Kirokoa now on the ground instead of the air. Rinua was shaking in anger.

"It seems as though we have underestimated these kids." She said under breath to Kirokoa who was just as angry.

"It seems you have." They swung their head around, and then were immediately bashed into the ground by Shikaru. The rest of the saviors put their hands on their hips as Rinua and Kirokoa stumbled to their feet, embarrassed of having not noticed Shikaru right behind them.

"In case you have forgotten, it remains that we have some unsettled business." Narutaku rolled his head, cracking his neck as he did so.

"And we are going to settle it right now." Nejero finished. With that, they all took to their positions. Hopefully, if this pulled through, it would be settled.

**TADA. I hope you liked the chappie, I'm so so so so so so so so so so (so x100000) sorry that it wasn't my best, but we can all take comfort in the fact that Rin and Kiroku are dead! It's about time I killed them off. They were getting in the way. Also, I know I overuse the word "teens" too much, but I can't really find any other way to describe them so I stuck to that word. Again, so sorry if you weren't fond of this chapter, but I still hope some of you liked it! R and R please, thanks a bunch!**


	16. The Real Fun Begins'

**Hey guys! Like it says in my profile, I have made a pact that I must only now write on the weekends. When I try to write on schooldays, I end up rushing through my work and not doing well on it and that isn't good. Please forgive me! Here's a chappy. I may write another on Sunday, but no official promises!**

Chapter 15

'The Real Fun Begins'

"You had your chance to settle it." Rinua wrinkled her brow as she glowed a heat of red. "Now it's our turn." She spun around and punched Narutaku dead in the face. Narutaku did not withdraw though, only stood there. He had a raised eyebrow when Rinua drew her hand back from his face.

"Well…that was pretty underhanded of you. But we're not that fragile!" He took Kirokoa and Rinua's heads and bashed them together before running off like a madman cackling. He slapped a high five to Naruto, who was also giggling at the sight of Kirokoa and Rinua quivering over a bumped head.

"You just keep pushing your limits don't you?" Kirokoa said with a hand on his forehead. "Well, I'd like to see you use that wit of yours to get out of this Narutaku." After saying this, Rinua and Kirokoa disappeared. Just up and vanished.

Everyone looked back and forth for their where abouts, but no one was seen.

"Keep your guards up," said Inoa, her eyes peeling around. "They have invisibility, so they're tricky. For all we know, they could be beside us." They suddenly heard some clapping. They all looked at the top right side of the room.

"Nice guess, but not quite!" Kirokoa smirked, Rinua by his side. They were perched atop the gargoyles, which were now in full form and ready to kill.

"Oh no," Sakaria said as she backed away, sweat running down her neck. "_De Stora Jagarna…_" The rest of the heroes backed away too as the rest of them took up confused looks.

"Um?" Tenten asked.

"It means 'the great destroyers'." Explained Shikaru. "They are the only creatures that can destroy us, as we suppose Gaara told you. I thought we took care of them all those years ago…"

"So you thought," shouted Rinua in a low chuckle. "Looks like things are going our way from here. Not to worry. I'll be sure to make a nice memorial for you after we destroy you- for the people who failed at fulfilling their prophecies and made this all possible!" She pretended to be making a toast. This made the heroes sick. They spat to the side to show that this didn't faze them.

"The amateurs Rin, Kiroku and their pathetic little children were…lets think of it as…a test run." Kirokoa went on. "But this…" the gargoyle began to take on a demonic form and bare its sharp fangs. "Is where the real fun begins."

At this, the heroes decided that the only way to get out of this situation was to peel off as they did earlier. It's much better than taking two on at once. Shikaru, Inoa, Sasuraku and Sakaria grabbed their reincarnates, and teleported elsewhere. Nejero, Tensha, Hinalia and Narutaku did the same with theirs.

With Sakaria and Sakura, Sasuraku and Sasuke, Shikaru and Shikamaru, Inoa and Ino… 

Kirokoa was perched upon his gargoyle, looking down upon the people with a look of disgust.

"Running away from battle. How pathetic…even for you four." He looked pointedly at the saviors who grimaced back. "Luckily, the new civilization will be cowardice-free. OR shall I put it…free of you."

"Hit us with your best shot." Sasuraku smiled coolly as he took on a fight stance.

"Gladly." With that, the gargoyle began to throw balls of power at the teens and saviors. They were dodging with much effort, but dodging nonetheless.

"What…do…we…do…now?" Ino panted between dodges to Inoa.

"I don't know…just let me think-Agh!" Inoa was grazed about two inches in her skin by a bolt of power. Ino looked at the penetrated flesh, and saw it slowly disappear, literally. The two inches of Inoa's arm that were hit were no longer there. Ino watched with horror.

"What?" she gasped after seeing this. Inoa held on to the spot.

"Shit…" she grunted.

"This is what we mean. If we get a dead on hit by one of those things, it will mean the end for us." Sakaria said as she blew some power balls away with gusts of wind.

"That just means we will have to use more force." Shikaru grinned. The saviors nodded back as the teens watched in confusion. What were they planning?

With Nejero and Neji, Tensha and Tenten, Narutaku and Naruto, Hinalia and Hinata… 

Rinua's gargoyle took a step forward. Hinata jumped at the noise brought about by the impact. Rinua laughed at her reaction

"Ah, how I miss tormenting innocent weaklings!" She threw her head back in laughter. Hinata turned red and felt tears well up in her eyes. _No! _she told herself. _Stop! Not here! Remember how strong you were earlier? Find that power again…you have to find it, Hinata…It's the only way to save yourself._

"I'm not a weakling." Hinata said quietly to the ground. Rinua stopped laughing and leveled with Hinata.

"What's that young one?" She asked, prodding Hinata's forehead. Hinata clenched a fist. Rin always used to do that to her. It would make her want to…kill someone.

"I said I'm not a weakling." Hinata brought her head up and locked eyes with Rinua. Rinua was surprised by this, but not threatened. "Ah, you see, no more than forty-five minutes together, and you are already mouthing off at me? That hurts…a lot." She pretended to tear up. Hinata got even angrier. "Don't forget…I could squash you here and nOW!" the last part of the 'now' was interrupted by an actual 'ow' as Naruto punched Rinua into the stomach of the gargoyle.

"Don't you ever talk to Hinata like that…" Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Or you'll know what'll happen next." Rinua stood up and pulled composed herself.

"I remember when we were like that…" Hinalia sighed as she rested her elbow on Narutaku's shoulder.

"Sure do," Narutaku agreed as he winked at her.

Neji and Tenten were standing in the background, but that didn't mean nothing was going on there too.

"…So do you know the plan now?" Neji asked her.

"Yes, I do." Tenten assured him.

"Good. I thought it over, and I'm pretty sure it will work…" He looked over at Nejero. Nejero was mind communicating with Sasuraku, who was then mind communicating with Neji. Neji's mind was advanced enough to comprehend it. "We just need to find the right time."

"Great. And how exactly are we going to know when that is?" Tenten sighed. Neji took a pause as he waited for another telepathic message.

"Apparently…we will just know." He said as he closed his eyes. Tenten sighed again.

"That seems to be the case with a lot of things lately." She said as she knocked 'the' kunai back and forth in her fingers.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Said Neji as he looked her in the eyes. They locked for a minute, and then realized this was not the time to be sharing a romantic moment. Their lives were on the line.

Rinua looked at Naruto as she wiped the blood from her mouth. "So you caught me off guard…pretty good for someone of your stature, but…" She hopped onto the hand of the gargoyle before being raised up. "I can do better." The gargoyle began to glow and as did the other.

"Shikamaru," Ino grabbed Shika's arm. Shikamaru pulled her closer. "What are they up to?" She said skeptically, as the gargoyles grew ever brighter, and Rin and Kirokoa's twisted smiles grew wider.

"I don't know." He unknowingly began to squeeze Ino even harder. "But whatever it is, it sure isn't good."

As the gargoyles glew, they began to draw closer to one another. And closer. Then at last, they began to fuse together. The resulting figure was twice the size, and by the looks of it, twice the strength. Rinua and Kirokoa were now both perched atop its head.

"This makes things much more convenient." Kirokoa said triumphantly. "You see, with the combined powers of _De Stora Jagarna, _we can take each and every one of you put completely in one lethal blow." In Kirokoa's attempt to frighten them with this statement, they all just stood there. "_Lethal._" He repeated. No bad reaction. He then realized that something was peculiar about them. He looked down and gasped. The ground below the gargoyle was cracking. Rinua heard something from the ceiling as well. She looked up, and it was engulfed in flames.

"Have it your way!" She boomed. She said an incantation with Kirokoa, and the gargoyle began to charge up a ball of power about the size of a house.

"This has to work guys…" Sakura said, as she was concentrating on forming a large typhoon behind the gargoyle with the help Sasuke and their previous selves.

"We know…" Tenten replied, as she put more force into tearing apart the ground beneath.

_The forces think of their destinies_

_And what it is they must do…_

The ball of light grew larger. It was no longer even light now, and resembled more of a black whole. They then remembered that attacks usually reflected ones personality. Figures. Unfortunately, the dark ball not only looked like a black whole, but apparently acted as one too. This was evident as objects began to get sucked in. Pillars were torn from the rafters and floors, as were doors and chairs. All went into the ball of darkness, and as they did, the ball only grew more.

"Whatever you have planned, you will be finished long before you carry it out!" Rinua shouted over the suck of the darkness.

The teens were determined not to let that happen. They could feel themselves being pulled towards the gargoyle. _No!_ They all thought at once.

"Everyone, I want you to focus all your energy to the soles of your feet!" Shouted Tensha. They obeyed, and they halted. At this point, the fire was coming down from the ceiling even lower, only yards above the gargoyle now. They windstorm behind them was struggling to overpower the dark vacuum, but did not succumb. The ground was cracking even more, and filling with water. With every second going by, you could here more and more rocks break off. Their plan was working so far…but would it work in time?

**I know, it's short, I'm sorry! I'm just saving up a long climax for the next chappie, which may be the last one (sorry). Just the story can't go on forever, and someone you are probably getting tired of it not coming to an end. Don't worry, next chappie will be VERY eventful. I hope you're enjoying the story! R and R! Thanks guys!**


	17. The Final Battle

**I know, this one is so short, but the shorter the chappie the quicker the update and the longer the story. I hope you guys enjoy this one!**

Chapter 16

The Final Battle (Not the final chapter though!)

This would work. This _had_ to work. They gave it their all pull through with this plan. It was the only one they had.

The black hole began to gather so many things, the only objects left in the room were the people and their power attacks. The dark ball had now grown to be the size of a work building. The ground beneath had now had a million large cracks and canyons, all filled with water. The fire descended even more.

"Give up now, children!" Rinua cackled. "It's only going to get worse for you from here! This is the real thing!" After she said this, the sucking winds came to an abrupt halt. The ball began to swell again. After that, it slowly made it's way towards the heroes. With it's large mass, it could not move at the speed of light, but with it's incredible size, there was no way to dodge it. They were going to take a direct…lethal…hit.

"NOW!" Cried Tensha. Rinua wrinkled her brow.

"Still trying are we now-gah!" All of a sudden, the cracking ground beneath the gargoyle gave out, and the gargoyle, along with Rinua and Kirokoa, fell into a very large, water filled, crack. The were now floating.

"So is this your ever mighty plan?" Laughed Kirokoa, as the gargoyle put it's hands on the ledges to pull itself out. Inoa spat to the side.

"Do it now, guys," she said, looking at her two adversaries in pure malice. The fire-users obeyed, and lowered their arms. The fire grew so low onto the gargoyle now, that its hands slipped off from the ledges, dropping itself back into the water. Kirokoa's cackling had stopped, and he and Rinua had now jumped into the water to avoid the fire descending onto them. Hinalia smiled. They were just where they wanted them now.

"This is it guys!" She said to her water companions, eying the black power ball that was still on its way. She was hoping they could finish this in time.

"Let's do it!" Narutaku shouted, as if this were the moment he's been waiting for all his life (which it kind of was).

_As reincarnates of past saviors…_

It was then that they lowered the water lower and lower into the depths of the cracks. As the water went down, it pulled the gargoyle, Rinua and Kirokoa down with it. And this time, with fire right over the opening, there was no escape. They struggled of course, but the water continued to pull them down deeper and deeper.

So deep that the last thing the heroes heard were the words "We…failed." Then silence followed.

The fire diminished, and the heroes and teens walked to the cracks and looked down into them. No horror movie thing where the killer pops up again follows. They know they have succeeded.

"Just one more thing left to do!" Narutaku put his hands together. "Just close these babies up, and then we can PARTAY!" he and Naruto broke into dance as the rest of them chuckled at this regard to the greatest accomplishment of their lives.

"He's right," nodded Sakaria. "We should close these cracks to insure their fates." The girls groaned.

"It think we've had enough "fate" for one day," sighed Tenten, and she walked to the end of the crack with Neji.

"Ok, you guys pull the pieces of Earth together, while Ino and Shikamaru heat the sides," Instructed Shikaru.

"What for?" asked Ino as she put her hands on the ledge.

"So that the rock turns molten and hardens after it sinks into the cracks. That way we know that they cannot come back." Shikaru explain. Understanding, they did was they were told. The rock edges turned red and began to sink inward. They seeped in the cracks as the pieces of earth were pulled together again by the Earth forces. After a few minutes, the ground was intact again. Not everything was done though; they suddenly heard a crackling noise and looked upward. Floating above the ground where the gargoyle once stood was the charcoal scroll of the dark prophecy. It was burning from the bottom up, disintegrating to the floor in the process. After the entire scroll was burnt to ash, the remains were blown away by wind that came as if out of nowhere.

They all smiled.

"So…we really did it." Hinata said softly as she grinned. The rest of them nodded. They had done it.

"Congrats all!" a voice came behind them. They swiveled to see the fellowship behind them, unscathed.

"You're ok! Phew, I was worried about you guys when I saw the black hole!" Ino put her hand on her chest in relief.

"No worries. Tensha wasn't kidding when she said that rock was impenetrable. We were pretty much safe the whole time." Kiba said as he brushed dirt off himself. They grinned.

"You guys did good." Nejero said as he and the rest of the saviors began to glow. "Very good. But unfortunately, we have to leave you now." The teen's faces fell when they realized he was right. They had outlived their time with them now that they had fulfilled their obligation.

"What's with the long faces?" Narutaku said, holding his hands up. "You should be happy! After all…" they all began to slowly fade.

"You are the real saviors here." They all said in unison as they faded completely. Their voices echoed, and within the light left behind there was a stone that resembled the one from earlier, only the swirls were reversing. Lee walked over to it.

"They left us with the return gem...we will get out of here now." Lee said, picking it up as that little tidbit just crossed everyone's minds.

"Oh yeah…we do need to get out of here somehow." Sakura said, looking around.

"And that's what the return gem is for!" chirped Chouji, saying just about the first thing he's said during this whole drama.

"Another great help from the fellowship," said Kiba doing a pretend bow. They all rolled their eyes but laughed.

"Come," said Shino gesturing them all over. "I'm getting homesick." They all looked at him funny, and he turned red and looked at the ground. "What? My bugs are probably worried sick about me." They accepted this explanation, but were still befuddled.

They all walked over to where the fellowship was. Lee set the stone down, and everyone circled around it. The fellowship began to recite the last lines of the prophecy. As they did so, wind picked up around them. And this time it wasn't because of Sakura and Sasuke. As they got more into it, the wind blew harder and they could feel themselves being lifted off their feet. Before they knew it, they felt shot into a portal. It was unexpected, but they were not frightened. They had left the place of their worst nightmares.

**Sorry about how short the chapters are getting. Again, I'm trying to space them to make the ending last longer. I'm really complemented by all of you who don't want the story to end, but I don't want to ruin the story by going into random irrevalent plotlines. I swear I plan to give it a good ending. Keep looking for the next chappie! Thanks so much all of you, more than you will ever know!**


	18. The Beginning of Something Bigger

**And…still not the end yet! Here's another chappie, and it's not too long, not too short…my average length I'm pretty sure. But I don't really know. Either way, I hope you like this one!**

Chapter 17

The Beginning of Something Bigger

They hit the ground with a hard thump again.

"Why didn't we see that coming this time…" Sasuke grunted as he got to his feet. The others did also, rubbing their knees, arms and heads from the impact. They looked around to see that they were in the courtyard of Konoha Village High.

"We're back!" Ino said gratefully, pinching herself to see if it was true. It was. They had returned home.

"What time is it?" Tenten asked. Neji looked at his watch. His eyes widened.

"By this time, it would be…only 6th bell." His voice was full of confusion. Everyone was dumbfounded.

"What?" Hinata asked. "That means we were only gone for…an hour?" Everyone looked at one another questioningly.

"I guess time goes by slower in the dark world." Shikamaru said. They all nodded.

"Maybe, but its still so weird." Ino bit her lip.

"Well, let's recap on what's happened today," said Kiba, pretending to think. "We have been taken to a dark world, been beaten up by the dark forces, almost killed by a giant monkey, serviced by the figures of our past selves, took down the forces of evil by fighting with combined elemental powers, and shattered the future of evil. You think we haven't seen weird already?" Everyone laughed. Still the same old Kiba.

"Let's go inside," sighed Sakura, walking to the doors. "I'm sure we've probably been accused of skipping class." They all sighed. They save the butts of humanity, and earn a detention. What a jip.

However, when they entered the building, everything was askew and kids were on the floor, though alive, and others were running around frantically in confusion, as if something big had just taken place.

"Children!" they were all swept up into a backbreaking hug, given by none other than Tsunade. "My goodness, I was wondering where you ran off to! Something very odd just took place!" She released and the children looked around. They could tell something odd had definitely taken place.

"You see, a few minutes after lunch, the sky grew very dark, and the earth began to shake, as if it were a great earthquake. It felt for a moment like the world was coming to an end. Then just as fast, it all disappeared, like it had- oh my!" Tsunade had looked the kids up and down. "You kids are covered in dirt…and you're all wounded! What on earth happened to you while you were skipping class?" The teens all shared a look.

"Let's just say…we were catching up with some old friends." Neji said, smiling. Tsunade looked at them all with a raised eyebrow. She could tell there was something they were all hiding. Even so, she did not care to get into it.

"Ah, I see. Teenagers…" she sighed as she walked away, stepping over the fallen books and shelves as she went.

The teens walked back out the doors. They did not wish to get caught up in all of the "earthquake" fuss. Returning back to the courtyard, they all sat on the benches that were placed in a circle around the Konoha symbol that was in the courtyard ground.

"So," Tenten sat on her hands and swung her feet back and forth. "Just think. Had we not succeeded when we did, this world would have taken an even bigger hit." At this, they all looked at the half torn down school. They had no idea why they hadn't noticed the torn roof and trees before, but they were too lost in happiness of being home.

"You're right." Ino smiled. "But I can't help but think…" she said. They looked at her. "What's left for us now that we've accomplished our 'inevitable destinies'?" she asked everyone. They all looked down. No one knew how to answer it since none of them had families to go back to or any more obligations to fulfill.

"It may sound weird…but just live the normal teenage life." The voice came behind them. It was familiar. Very familiar. They all slowly turned. They rubbed their eyes to see if what they had laid eyes on was true.

"Gaara?" Ino exclaimed, jumping up from the bench, wrapping up Gaara in a hug. Gaara didn't like hugs, but he let this one slide.

"But I though you were…?" Hinata began, standing up also.

"Dead?" Gaara asked. "You see, I thought so too. But when you fulfilled the significant portion of the prophecy, my death was not in vain. I was granted my life back." The teen's mouths hung open.

"By who?" Tenten asked skeptically. For just about the first time, Gaara grinned.

"I think you know who." He told them. This time, the teens grinned and looked up to the sky. They knew exactly who.

"We're so glad you're alive! But now what are you going to do about your former alias, Akio?" Sakura asked him curiously.

"All taken care of. I left a note with Tsunade explaining Akio's relocation." Gaara told them as he took off his gourd so he could take a seat on a bench. "For all the school knows, my former alias Akio is on the edge of the rain country learning to grow herbs of life."

"What are herbs of life?" Naruto asked, scratching his head.

"Exactly." Gaara answered. They all chuckled.

After talking a bit, and getting to know Gaara instead of simply the true alias of Akio, Gaara stood up and put his gourd back on.

"I must leave now. I have to do something…but remember. You need to do something too." Gaara turned his back and began walking.

"Wait!" called Sasuke. "What do you mean we need to do something too?" he asked Gaara. Gaara stopped but remained facing away.

"There is still a part of the prophecy that remains unfulfilled." Gaara answered back. He began walking again. He smiled to himself as he went. _They will find out what soon. Without realizing it, but…they will know._

"What do you suggest he means by that?" Shikamaru asked. They all shrugged.

"Beats me." Tenten said as she tiredly dropped back onto a bench. "But all I really want to do now is take a warm bath or something." She leaned her head back as she looked to the sky.

"She's right," said Ino, looking her friends and herself up and down. "We need to clean up our wounds before they get infected." They all nodded. Neji laughed softly.

"You girls," he shook his head. "Always concerned about your looks." The girls turned red.

"It's not that…it's just that…" Tenten stuttered in defense. Neji held a hand up to hush her.

"I know," he said smiling. Tenten turned redder and looked away in embarrassment.

"But we really must go clean up." Hinata reasoned, trying to brush through her tangled hair with her fingers.

"Fair enough," sighed Sasuke as he got up and stretched. "We're gonna need to clean up too." Everyone got up.

"But after that…" Naruto said bashfully, looking at the ground, something that was unlike Naruto. "Can we see you girls again? Like, tonight?" The rest of the boys put their hands in their pockets and also looked at the ground. This made the girls smile.

Kiba, upon watching this, faced the rest of the fellowship.

"Looky here, fellas," he hitched his thumb back at the chemistry forming behind him. "Looks like things are finally heating up with these guys. I think we better…you know…give them some time." The rest of the fellowship knew what he meant and nodded.

"After all," said Shino. "They need to." Kiba nodded.

"That's right. So we better get going (AN: that was foreshadow, not incoherent writing)." Kiba winked and the fellowship began to walk off.

"Wait!" Sakura called to them. They stopped and looked back.

"Thanks you guys." She said. "We could not have done any of it without you." They all nodded in agreement.

"Aw, shucks." Kiba said, giving a half smile. "Anytime. We just need to go…um…to the place. Keep us posted. See you guys later!" He said rather quickly, before he and the rest of the fellowship walked away faster, as if trying to avoid any more interruptions. The teens stared off after them.

"What's with everyone?" Ino asked in a peculiar tone. "They keep running off as if…"

"…As if they want us to be alone?" Shikamaru finished for her. Ino looked at him.

"Yeah." She said quietly. A silence followed.

"So…um…we better get going." Tenten said as the girls began to back away then walk out of the courtyard. The boys looked after them, smiling. Even covered in soot and blood, the girls appeared flawless to them.

_With the girls…_

The girls walked, kicking stones as they went. They recalled just that morning when they were walking the opposite way on that very sidewalk, unaware of the events they were to undergo within hours. The moment they met the first ally of the prophecy. In all, just…the beginning of the worst day of their lives.

Or was it the best?

The girls could not figure out which. Aside from that, they also did not know to think of it as the end of something big…or the beginning of something bigger. They chose to find out.

"So…about Neji…" Tenten began, choosing to break the silence.

"And Shikamaru…" followed Ino.

"Sasuke…" Sakura continued.

"…Naruto." Hinata said softly. A small pause came after, before they all spoke at once.

"I think I-" they stopped mid sentence when they noticed themselves all speaking at once.

"Um, you guys first?" Tenten offered. The girls all looked away.

"No you." Sakura said in muffled tone.

"Never mind it." Said Hinata and Ino quickly. For an odd reason, none of them wanted to admit 'it' just yet. A silence rose again.

As the girls walked, they noticed something different from that morning, and it wasn't just their direction and destination. As if all thinking the same thing, they all looked down at their ankles. There were no marks to be seen.

**As ending-ish as this seems right now, it's not the end just yet. To make up for the lack of romance in the last couple chapters, the next one will be completely dedicated to the couples. I hope you like you the story is turning out. Thanks everyone!**


	19. The Real Thing

**Ok, this is the grand finale! I hope you guys like this one! I'd like to shout out many thanks to Defender of the Light, Tomboy901, Kyoto-chan, rockleelover of course, and EVERYONE who has reviewed this! You guys are my loves! Warning, much fluff in this chapter, but I still really hope you like it.**

Chapter 18

The Real Thing

The girls rummaged through their clothes, looking for what to wear. Yet another relation to just that morning, the clothes were strewn across the bed and flipped on the floor and everything once more.

The girls were showered up and had done their hair the same way they had in the morning. Even Tenten agreed to wear her hair down, but claimed this to be the very last time.

They didn't bother to cover their bruises with any makeup and they were pretty bandaged up. For some reason, they didn't care. The war scars made them feel accomplishment of what they had done, and did not feel it was right to try and hide them.

"Just think," said Sakura, twirling around happily, feeling like a little girl again far before they got caught up in fate. "No more ankle pains, no more trying to hide seals, no more lying…"

"…no more running." Tenten finished, smiling. Sakura stopped twirling and fell back onto the clothing covered bed.

"Exactly." She said.

"But what about what Gaara said?" Hinata asked. "About us having not completely fulfilled the prophecy yet?" The girl's faces went blank, as they had forgotten about that.

"Oh yeah…" said Ino. "But what have we not done? I mean, we've killed Rinua and Kirokoa and destroyed the dark prophecy, what else is there left to do?" She lay back on the bed and looked at the ceiling fan.

"No use worrying about it now," sighed Tenten, walking out of the bathroom. "We've got other things at the moment." Neji ran through her mind.

"Hell yeah we do…" said Ino, getting off the bed as she grinned evilly. Sakura did the same.

"Like what you're gonna wear." Sakura said, as the two girls began to close in on Tenten, articles of clothing in hand. Tenten's eyes widened with horror.

"Stay back!" she said, backing in corner. "If it's not enough that you're making me wear my hair down, _again_, now you're going to make me relive the pain of this morning?" The girls did not yield. Tenten just sighed in a succumbing manner. "Great. Here we go again…"

_With the boys…_

"So," Shikamaru scratched his head. "What is one supposed to wear to these sorta things?" Neji walked in as he polished a kunai.

"What sort of things?" he asked curiously. Naruto bounded in.

"Dates, duh!" He poked Neji mockingly, who swatted Naruto away.

"Who said this was a date?" Sasuke asked, holding his hands up. "It's just a get together with friends…"

"…Of the opposite sex." Naruto interrupted, wiggling his eyebrows seductively.

"I have to agree with the brat," Neji said, grinning. "Just admit it Uchiha, you have something for that pink haired girl Sakura." Sasuke turned his back at this, not wanting to reveal to his friends his flush.

"Whatever…" Sasuke started out the door into the living room. He was not about to admit it. _Even if they are right…_

After Sasuke walked away, Naruto began talking again.

"And you two have something special for those girls too," he said pointing at Shikamaru and Neji. Shikamaru snorted.

"Ino? She's not…she's just…"

"The beautiful, lovely, true, gorgeous, everlasting love of your short life?" Naruto interrupted yet again, batting his eyelashes jokingly. Shikamaru gripped the sides of the chair he was sitting in. How was Naruto of all people so good with knowing this stuff?

"This is troublesome." He sighed. He got up, and something fell out of his pocket. Naruto bent down and picked it up.

"Ooh, what's this…allow me to read." Naruto read the words on the fallen object, and only seconds later, burst into laughter.

"Breath mints?" He said between laughter. "Yeah right Ino's 'just a friend'! What do you suspect you'll be doing on the first date anyway?" Shikamaru's vein bulged in his temple. It often did that when he was irritated.

"Well," the smooth voice of Neji came behind Naruto. "At least he doesn't have condoms." Neji opened Naruto's fist, which had been clenched. Inside it was a small square package.

"Dude, I'm no perv!" Naruto defended, looking hurt. "It's only a wet nap! I can't have crap on my face during a date!" Naruto opened the package and pulled out a white towelette. It was indeed a mere wet nap. Neji sighed in relief.

"Although Hinata is quite the pretty young lady…" Naruto added to intentionally annoy Neji. Neji bopped him over the head.

"Watch it there! I don't care if you would give up ramen for the rest of your life just to be with her, she's still my cousin." He said seriously to Naruto. Naruto rolled his eyes in a 'cousin my ass!' fashion. Shikamaru had slinked out of the room, still in embarrassment about the breath mint incident.

"Whatever you say, Hyuuga." Naruto began to jump on the bed. Neji rolled his eyes. _How did someone like him end of with my cousin?_

"But there's no denying," Naruto jumped off the bed and pointed at Neji. "_You _are _crazy_ about Tenten. I can see it." Naruto began to bound around again.

"You certainly are into the game of matchmaker, aren't you Naruto?" Neji walked to the window and looked at the lowering sun.

"Who me? Naw. I can just tell when one is caught up in the game of affection." Naruto said, putting his elbow on Neji's shoulder. Neji shrugged it off.

"I tried to not let…affection…get in the way of my life. I don't need it…as far I see, humans can do without it." Neji clutched fists and looked down from the sunset.

"Dude, no." Naruto shook his head. "That's, like, the opposite of what life should be like." Neji ignored him.

"But…no matter how I try to fight it, it keeps coming back, pestering me. Just like the past used to do." Neji sighed and walked away from the window. Naruto now looked at the sunset.

"Then that is indeed affection my friend," Naruto said proudly. "That is indeed."

Later that night, in the Konoha courtyard… 

The boys were there first because, as Naruto claimed, the men are always courteously early while the women are fashionably late. They all had white button up shirts, and…jeans. Lets just say, they weren't exactly fashion gurus.

"Hey guys." The guys turned to the voice behind them. It was the girls. They were stunned at how good they looked. Apparently, the girls had taken this as a date also. The boys were relieved. They would have looked really stupid had they been dressed up and the girls came looking casual.

But that wasn't the case. Ino was wearing a black strapless dress that went to above her knees, almost making Shikamaru's eyes jump out of their sockets.

Sakura was wearing a soft pink dress that had spaghetti straps and flowed out at the end. Even Sasuke couldn't stop himself from gawking.

Refusing to wear a dress, Tenten was wearing a tight black spaghetti strap tank and a white pleated skirt that complemented her figure. Neji had to admit, she looked very attractive.

Hinata was also dressed up. She had a navy blue dress that had short sleeves and stopped at her knees. For just about the first time ever in her life, she was wearing makeup. Naruto whistled, making her blush.

"So…" Shikamaru said in the silence as they had all been examining one another. "…Wow." He finished, as if it were the greatest complement his mind could conjure up.

The rest of the boys slowly nodded in agreement. The girls smirked and looked at each other. Their plan to impress had followed through.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Sakura asked. The boy's faces fell. They had not exactly thought about that.

"Well…about that," Naruto began. The boys all looked down ashamed. This was their first date (or something like one) and they had blown it in the first second.

"You know what?" Tenten said, sitting down. "Let's just stay here." The rest of the girls sat down too. The boys raised their eyebrows.

"…In the courtyard?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes," said Sakura, putting one leg over the other. "It's really nice out…good temperature, full moon, the stars are out and everything. Let's just talk, you know?" Ino nodded. The boys all looked at one another and shrugged. They each sat down next to a girl. (AN: I bet you can guess who sat with whom)

From there, separate conversations rose with each couple. Their benches were sufficiently spaced at different ends of the square, so they each had privacy.

_With Neji and Tenten…_

"You might be wanting this back now, since we succeeded in, well, you know." Tenten said timidly as she held Neji's kunai out to him. "I noticed that your name is on it and it's all scratched up, and I figured it was valuable to you, so I thought-"

"Keep it." Neji interrupted solidly with a smile. Tenten blinked.

"What?" She asked.

"I want you to keep it." Neji repeated. "You are right, it is valuable to me, but I think I found something even more valuable." He said.

"And what's that?" Tenten asked, though she had a pretty good feeling she knew what it was. She could feel her heart doing laps around her system.

"You." The next thing Tenten knew, Neji's lips had come down on hers and it turned to a full-fledged kiss. Much better than the one from before, since there were no orbs of light being thrown at them or ninjas attempting to decapitate them. It was just her, Neji, the stars and the moon. And also the fact that Neji had directly said it changed everything.

When they broke apart, Tenten smiled.

"Ditto." Was all she said. Neji smiled back at her. It pretty much summed everything up.

_With Naruto and Hinata…_

Hinata and Naruto were both sitting, their feet having enough room to swing since they both lacked impressive height.

"You're a lot stronger than you look, you know." Naruto said to Hinata, being serious. Hinata smiled.

"Thank you. You are also very strong Naruto." She replied.

"I just don't understand why you don't have a lot of confidence," said Naruto, shaking his head. "I mean look at you, you're powerful, kind, have great friends, pretty and…" Naruto could feel himself trailing off, only making Hinata smile more. Naruto was all she had hoped for…someone who saw her as the Hinata inside of her whom she desperately wanted to be. Someone who saw her for her, instead of the shy girl who hangs out with those three pretty girls. Naruto wasn't done yet though. "And I guess what I'm trying to say is…" Naruto turned red this time, just as deep as Hinata's usually is. "I think…you're perfect." He said the last words with passion, yet slight awkwardness. He didn't meet her eyes.

Hinata did something she never did. She reached out and turned Naruto's face towards her own. Then she did a second thing the regular Hinata would never do.

"I think…you're perfect too Naruto. Thank you for helping me find my inner strength." With that, Hinata did a final third thing the regular Hinata would never do. She leaned in, and kissed Naruto on the lips. Strike three. And it wasn't a simply peck. It was drawn out, and long lasted (AN: or so it seemed for them). For once in her life, Hinata was more proud than ever to be who she was.

_With Sasuke and Sakura…_

Sasuke was looking for words to say to Sakura. Before, he ran from passion because it would supposedly tarnish his reputation as the stoic Sasuke Uchiha who had never felt affection or care for another person in his life, nor strayed even close to it. But now, he felt as if it was all stupid. It seemed as though Sakura could read his mind.

"Why run?" Sakura asked Sasuke, looking up at him with her wide emeralds. Sasuke pretended to look clueless.

"From what?" He asked.

"Emotion." Sakura answered. Sasuke felt his face heat up. _How did she…? Man, she really is smart._

"I'm not…I just…"

"Especially…if both know it's destined to happen." At saying this, Sakura inched her hand closer to Sasuke's. This move encouraged Sasuke to react the same. He accepted the offer by putting his own hand over hers tightly.

"You know what, you're right." He said, squeezing her hand tighter, bringing it up to his lips. "I definitely know it is." He lightly kissed her hand (AN: Major OOCness, I know, don't flame me for it please.).

"Me too." Sakura said, grinning. They both made the first move and leaned in at the same time, as if sharing the same thought at exactly the same moment. This added to why they felt they went so well together, and why the kiss they shared was possibly the beginning of the best thing in their lives.

_With Shikamaru and Ino…_

Shikamaru couldn't stop looking at Ino.

"You look really beautiful tonight," he said shyly, looking away. Looking away seemed be the typical thing for the guys to do when they said or did something that was unlike them to do.

"Thank you," said Ino, also looking away.

"Well, not just tonight," he added. "From the moment I met you in English." Ino smiled.

"When you came to my rescue from the hair nazis." Ino chuckled as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger, as mentioned earlier, a nervous habit of hers.

"Yeah. But it wasn't exactly then that I got attracted to you…it was later." Shikamaru said. Ino perked up. _So he is attracted to me? It wasn't just a heat-of-the-moment thing…_

"It was when I saw you stand up to Temari the way you did. Heck, no other girl in the school would have the nerve to do that. It showed me…" He scooted close to her. "That you're brave…and willing to take chances." Ino scooted closer to him as well to the point that there was no space in between them left.

"That's what I aim for." She said. "Besides," she giggled. "I was sort of being fueled by…" Ino stopped mid sentence. Was she ready to spill this yet? It was clear that there was chemistry between them, but would Shikamaru return as vast emotions as Ino had towards him?

"Love?" Shikamaru offered. Ino slowly turned to him. She looked at him and remembered everything they had done that day…from the sticky situation in the hallway, to the false poisoning. She knew right then that she was ready to admit to 'it'.

"Yes." She answered without hesitation. Shikamaru had a grin grow on his face.

"I was hoping that was it." He said. Ino's heart did back flips. _He does love me. _

And I bet you can guess what happened next. Yep, they kissed. Like the others, this kiss meant far more than the ones from earlier. Just the whole air to the moment, it being the day they fulfilled their life-long obligations, the whole perfection of the night…it was all just so much more.

After they all had finished up their moments, the town clock began to chime as it struck midnight. The girls vowed not to stay out past twelve, as they still had school the next day. (AN: No, haha that isn't supposed to be a Cinderella relation, but it's funny how it worked out like that.)

"We'll see you guys tomorrow." Hinata said as the girls turned to leave.

"Definitely." Naruto said, as he and the rest of the guys came and gave their girls farewell pecks on the cheeks. Each girl flushed crimson madly. They all gave each other the love-struck teenage girl looks that said, _aren't they just, like, perfect? _

The boys grinned. Just as they all turned to leave, one last thing had to be said.

"Oh, by the way." Neji said. The girls turned around again and faced the guys.

"Rinua was right about one thing," said Shikamaru. "This is the real thing." The girls smiled, knowing how the boys meant it. With that, they all walked in the direction of their homes, each of their hearts filled with sense of accomplishment, and you guessed it, love.

Little had the teenagers known, Gaara and the fellowship had been watching from around a nearby corner. Gaara smiled warmly upon watching the events that had just taken place. "Prophecy has been fulfilled," he said to himself.

_The Chosen Ones become true._

**I know, cheesy cheesy cheesy cheesy, HORRIBLY and DRAMATICALLY cheesy! I know that's what you all thought as you read this. But please, I beg of you, as fluffy as it is please don't bash it's cheesiness! It was supposed to be kind of passionate and sweet, as the other chapters have all been rough and tumble. And in case there is any confusion, the last line of the story was supposed to be the last line of the prophecy. I'm afraid this is the end of the story, and I'd like to thank everyone who motivated me to write it! Seriously guys, you have no idea what a help you've been. You rock! -does rock on sign with hands-. I've already asked a few people this, but tell me if you want me to write more action/adventure/romances! I have another romance/adventure kind of story in the making, so look for it later! Thanks again everyone for reading!**


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